HC stays long-term lease of endowments non-farm lands

Vijayawada: The Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice R Raghunandana Rao has taken serious exception to the state Government’s decision permitting long-term leases of endowment non-agricultural lands and has stayed G.O. No. 15, which enabled such leases.

The division bench issued interim orders holding that leases cannot be granted under the proposed amendment and adjourned the matter to next week for further hearing.

Under GO No 15, the state government had provided an opportunity to allot temple-owned non-agricultural lands on long-term leases of 33 years at nominal rent to charitable institutions that had been carrying out service activities continuously for the past 20 years.

Challenging this government order, Durga Prasad and Shyam Prasad Mukherjee, affiliated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, approached the High Court. Appearing on their behalf, advocate J V Phanidatt argued that the government’s authority over endowment properties is limited to protecting temple lands, and not to transferring or leasing them to private or charitable organisations.

The counsel contended that donors had dedicated properties to the deity, not to service organisations, and that granting long-term leases in the name of charity would result in systematic exploitation of valuable non-agricultural endowment lands.

He further argued that the Constitution does not permit such a legislative amendment and asserted that the Endowments Commissioner has no authority to write letters or initiate amendments to the law.Pointing out the contradiction, the petitioner’s counsel stated that while laws were enacted to safeguard temple properties, the same laws were now being diluted to defeat their very purpose.

On behalf of the state government, the advocate general submitted that it had become difficult to evict parties who had already obtained leases under the existing framework. Countering this argument, advocate Phanidatt maintained that the executive officer (EO) has clear statutory powers to evict unauthorised occupants and that the government’s contention was contrary to law.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the division bench observed that long-term leases of Endowment non-agricultural lands cannot be granted through the proposed amendment, and accordingly issued interim orders staying GO No 15, while posting the case for further hearing next week.