Preserve Land of Hanuman Temple In Saidabad: High Court

Hyderabad:The Telangana High Court has set aside proceedings issued 35 years ago by the commissioner of endowments that had sanctioned a compromise under which the famous Hanuman Temple on the Saidabad main road parted with nearly 1,000 square yards of its land in favour of private parties.

Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka directed the endowment department to ensure that the entire extent of temple land of 2,700 sq. yds be preserved and safeguarded strictly in accordance with the law. It is known that the Chanchalguda-Santoshnagar flyover works are going on in some portion of the temple land.

Doravari Kishan Pershad and his legal heirs and their family members claimed that the land belonged to Omkarnath Amba Prasad Brahmachari, who installed the Hanuman idol and performed daily rituals during his lifetime. They denied the contention that the land was granted to one Kolla Venkamma, as there is no evidence to substantiate it.

They argued that the registration of the institution under the Endowments Act was undertaken solely to safeguard the temple. The inclusion of their family’s residential portion in the records of the endowment department was accidental and inadvertent. This error came to light only when attempts were made to dispossess the family of their residential houses.

It was also stated that the compromise forming the subject matter of the impugned proceedings was arrived at during a statutory inquiry conducted by the competent authorities. The validity of the compromise was upheld by the High Court in 1990. In a subsequent order, the court effectively directed implementation of the compromise, thereby giving it finality.

The court held that the compromise, purportedly approved under Section 89 of the AP Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987, had become legally infructuous because the statutory precondition for such approval — a pending suit, appeal or proceeding relating to the endowment — no longer existed. The foundational proceedings of 1987 had been closed in 1996 and 1995 respectively, rendering the compromise incapable of further implementation.

The court placed significant reliance on its earlier judgment in CCCA No. 36 of 1982, which had categorically declared that the entire extent of five ‘bams’, equivalent to 2,700 square yards, belonged to the temple. This binding civil determination, the court held, could not be overridden or diluted by an administrative compromise devised without proper application of mind and based on an erroneous assumption that the temple possessed only 900 square yards.

Any attempt to alienate a portion of the property would directly contradict the civil court’s findings and violate statutory protections governing temple lands, which are public trust assets.

Justice Bheemapaka rejected objections regarding delay of filing the petition after 19 years and locus standi of the petitioner Bhakta Samaj of the temple, observing that protection of temple property was a matter of public importance, and that devotees or public bodies may seek judicial intervention to prevent unlawful alienation. Concluding that the 1990 proceedings lacked jurisdiction and contravened both statute and binding judicial findings, the court set aside the impugned order and restrained respondents from acting upon it, directing the temple authorities to safeguard the entire extent of land.

High Court Quashes Service Weightage Hike

Hyderabad:Justice Pulla Karthik of the Telangana High Court has set aside GO 133 issued by health and medical department, dated August 19, 2023, along with its corrigendum, to the extent that it enhanced service weightage points from 20 to 30 for recruitment to the post of multi-purpose health assistant (Female).

The court directed the authorities to conclude the recruitment in accordance with Notification No. 2/2023 dated July 26, 2023.

A writ petition, filed by Vanaja, had challenged the enhancement of service weightage on the ground that it violated the Full Bench judgment of 2017, which had fixed 20 points as the maximum permissible. The petitioner contended that increasing the weightage to 30 was discriminatory.

Ramesh Chilla, counsel for the petitioner, requested the court to direct the recruitment board to conduct the written examination for 80 marks and restrict the points awarded for service in state government hospitals, institutions and programmes to 20 in accordance with GO 59 HM&FW department, dated 07.06.2022 and the Full Bench judgment

The government defended the decision as a policy measure intended to recognise long-standing contractual and outsourced employees, especially those in rural and tribal areas. It argued that courts should not intervene in policy matters.

Justice Karthik held that the reliance on Supreme Court precedents was misplaced, noting that any policy contrary to binding judicial precedents could not stand. The court found the enhancement unsustainable and allowed the writ petition, restoring the original scheme of awarding a maximum of 20 service weightage points.