Vacate by Feb 27: SC order to Shanti Ashram land occupants

Visakhapatnam:The Supreme Court has asked land occupants of Shanti Ashram to handover possession of a property to the petitioner by 11am on February 27.

The apex court made it clear that if this is not tond, it will be treated as an aggravated case of contempt. The court would hear the case again on Feb 28. “We got our land back after 25 years of our struggle,”said a member of Shanti Ashram.

The contempt petition had been filed by the management of Sri Shanti Ashram against Shobha Rani w/o Vivekananda, Gautham, Siddharta and Sridevi who have occupied .6.5 acres of land worth `600 crore. It said the land located on the beach road in Visakhapatnam belonged to the Ashram.

The Sri Shanti Ashram is an 87-year-old spiritual organisation spread over 10 acres of beach front land in the heart of Visakhapatnam.

President of the Santi Ashram management committee MN Aditya, a senior advocate of Visakhapatnam, said the Swamiji gave 6.4 acres of land as a conditional gift deed to his disciple Yogi Raghavendra in 1949, by incorporating a condition that he would run a naturopathy hospital, impart yoga classes and carry out spiritual activities. If these conditions were not met, the gift deed would be cancelled and the land would revert back to Ashram, as per the signed document.

Aditya said that during his entire life Raghavendra did not fulfil any of the conditions, and rather carried out commercial activities there.

After the death of Raghavendra, one Gajula Vivekananda (now deceased) who claimed to be the adopted son of Raghavendra, claimed rights over property.

The management of Ashram filed a case in the principal senior civil judge’s court for cancellation of the gift deed in 1999, but the court dismissed the suit. The management went to appellant court of principal senior civil judge and got a favourable decree.

The heirs of Vivekananda challenged the order in the AP High Court in 2005 but the petition was dismissed. As a last resort, the heirs filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court in 2023, against the judgment of the high court.

The Supreme Court on December 14, 2023 dismissed the SLP in the admission stage itself and asked the deed holders to vacate the premises by September 30.