Attempts to encroach Puri Jagannath temple land will not be tolerated: Shrine authorities

Bhubaneswar: The Jagannath temple administration in Odisha's Puri has said it would protect the property of the 12th-century shrine and asserted that any move to encroach temple land would not be tolerated.

The SJTA, in a statement, said that it would computerise land records of the temple and protect them as per the Uniform Policy of the state government and the provisions of the Shri Janganath Temple Act, 1955.

The comments from the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), Puri, come after the Orissa High Court, in a recent judgment, stressed the need for seamless coordination and timely communication between the state’s Law Department and the temple authorities in all matters related to the alienation, lease, or mutation of temple land.

The temple in Puri is governed by the Law Department under the Shree Jagannath Temple Act, 1955.

The judgment was in connection with a case related to 15 acres of "disputed" land belonging to Puri Jagannath Temple, located in Jatani’s Kantia Mouza in Khurda district.

Odisha’s Advocate General Pitambar Acharya argued in favour of the temple, and SJTA chief administrator Arvind Padhee also appeared in the court to defend the interests of the shrine.

The court, in its order, has made it clear that no sanction or approval regarding temple land transactions would be considered valid, unless it strictly adheres to statutory requirements.

These requirements include prior recommendations from competent land committees and valuation by the district sub-registrar, as mandated by law.

The court also observed that substantial tracts of land endowed to Lord Jagannath, particularly in urban and peri-urban areas, have been lost from the effective control of the temple administration due to flawed alienations of immovable property.

Therefore, the high court directed the revenue and land records authorities to take immediate action to correct entries related to properties held in the name of Lord Jagannath.

The court has also asked the state government to review the existing provisions and procedural mechanisms under the SJTA to address significant loopholes that have facilitated unauthorised alienation and mutation of temple properties.

“In this case, the court has given orders to manage the land property of the temple in the coming days. The court order will be a guideline for the SJTA and will be followed strictly. The SJTA is committed to protecting the temple land,” Padhee said.

Official sources said that a total of 60,426.943 acres of land is in the name of Shree Jagannath Temple, and these land parcels are located in 24 of the 30 districts of Odisha.

Of these, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration has received the final record of rights over 38,061.892 acres of land, they said.

Besides, 395.252 acres of the temple land have been identified in six other states.

A total of 169.86 acres of land, belonging to the Jagannath temple, Puri, remained encroached in Odisha's Cuttack, Puri, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Khurda, Balasore and Jajpur.

As many as 974 cases have been lodged in different tehsils of the state to remove encroachments.