Land dispute: HC quashes 2 orders of revenue dept, allots 0.146 hectare to Banke Bihari temple

A Bench of Justice Saurabh Srivastava issued an order on Friday and directed the revenue officials of Tehsil Chata in Mathura “to enter the name of Mandir Bihari Ji Virajman Mandir against plot” and to complete the exercise “as expeditiously as possible preferably within a period of one month from the date of production of certified copy”
of its order.

The allegation in the petition, filed by Sri Bihari Ji Seva Trust in 2022, was that one Bhola Khan Pathan along with his agents submitted an application to the Chief Minister in 2004 that a disputed piece “be recorded as graveyard (kabristan)”. The Sri Bihari Ji Seva Trust is the custodian of the temple. On behalf of the Sri Bihari Ji Seva Trust, Advocates Raghwendra Prasad Mishra and Avneesh Tripathi appeared in the High Court.

After going through the land records, the court said that the issue mentioned in the plea is different and that the land in question is not registered in the name of the graveyard and that the graveyard has a separate piece of land registered in its name.

The court said that “it is evident from the records that the petitioner being the custodian of properties pertains to Mandir Bihari Ji Virajman Mandir is exclusively in possession of the plot in question (plot no. 1081/1) which is available in the revenue records measuring area 0.1460 hectare”.

The court said that the temple “was never ever served any type of notice, intimation, information, showcause” for the change in the revenue records.

The court took note of revenue records from the year dating back to the 1940s, where the said land was registered in the name of Mandir Bihari Ji Virajman Mandir, but was changed in 1970 and 1991 by the revenue department.