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Supreme Court Moved Against Sale Of Puri Jagannath Temple Land

New Delhi: Amid the controversy over sale of land recorded in the name of Lord Jagannath of the temple here, a petition was filed on Thursday in the Supreme Court seeking a directive to stop the process.

The petition, filed by Jan Swabhiman Welfare Society, appealed to the court to issue direction to the parties involved in the process to ensure that only of people who adhere to the religion and worship the Lord are involved in any temporary or permanent settlement of the properties of Lord Jagannath.

The Society also sought the court’s intervention in dissolving the current management of the Jagannath temple and formation of a judicial committee to set up an administrative mechanism as per the religious traditions of the temple and restrict the role of government to only facilitation of such a mechanism. It requested for a judicial commission headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court to investigate the matter.

The petition has made Cabinet Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs, Chief Secretary of Odisha and Chief Administrator of the Shree Jagannatha Temple Administration (SJTA) as opposite parties for response.

Also Read: No Sale Of Land Belonging To Puri Jagannath Temple, SJTA Clears Air

It may be noted that the SJTA had clarified on March 18 that there is no proposal to sell land belonging to the Puri shrine. “It has been falsely reported that 35,000 acre of land of Lord Jagannath are being sold. This is a complete distortion of facts and is blatantly false and motivated,” the SJTA said.

The SJTA’s clarification came in response to the statement of Law, Housing and Urban Development Minister Pratap Jena in the Assembly two days earlier that the government has begun the process to sell more than 35,000 acre of land recorded in the name of Lord Jagannath.