INDIA, July 2011: A fierce debate brewed about what to do with billions of dollars worth of treasures in a popular 16th-century Hindu temple in southern India, even as the trove of newly revealed riches was growing. Inside the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, investigators were counting the staggering hoard.
But the legal position seems to be very clear on this issue. The wealth, even if kept in trust with the temple, is an offering to the presiding deity of the temple, The Padmnabhaswamy in this case. So the propriety must be vested in the Deity. In Bihar State Board of Religious Trust vs. Ramsubaran Das [1996 SCALE (2) 702], the Supreme Court had pointed to ancient revenue records attaching the temple land in the name of the deity. It had said, “That mahants dealt with the properties in their own names does not detract from the fact that the temples were public temples as they would well be said to be dealing with on behalf of the deities to whom the properties are dedicated.”
Legal experts are unanimous that a Hindu temple Deity, as per the long established authority and founded upon religious customs of the Hindus, is a ‘juristic entity,’ and it has ‘juridical status’ with power of suing and being sued. In 1983, Sri Adi Visheshwara of Kashi Vishwanath of Varanasi fought a legal battle in the Supreme Court when the Uttar Pradesh government enacted the Sri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Act, 1983, for better management of the ancient temple. The Supreme Court had ruled that a Deity could move the court and said: “Properties of endowment vest in the Deity Lord Sri Vishwanath.”
Besides the Supreme Court, various High Courts had also recognised the fact that a temple Deity would be a legal entity and even a devotee or a regular worshipper could move the court on behalf of the presiding Deity, which will be considered a perpetual minor. In the famous Judgement by Allahabad High Court in the Ayodhya issue also the same was pointed out by the court.
So the rule of law must prevail. The wealth belonging to the Lord Vishnu the Deity of the great Swamy Pdmanabha Temple should be legally made into an endowment trust and should be used for renovation of Hindu temples all over the country. Vishnu, the Lord of sustenance would sustain the whole nation.