Ahmedabad, Jun 18 (PTI) The Gujarat High Court has dismissed a 35-year-old plea filed by the royal family of the erstwhile Baroda state, challenging a lower court’s order rejecting its claim over a 707-acre land parcel belonging to a temple trust.
In an order passed on Wednesday and made available on Thursday, the HC noted such persistence and prolonged litigation strained judicial resources and consumed the court’s precious time.
In the order, Justice JC Doshi came down heavily on the appellant, His Highness the Maharaja of Baroda, observing the first appeal was “a glaring example of unscrupulous desire of litigant to put a case in endless litigation and to pursue the court proceedings to keep the deity’s property under cloud forever.” A batch of first appeals was filed in the HC way back in 1991 after the lower court dismissed the claims of the erstwhile ruler of Baroda over a parcel of land that the charity commissioner had declared belonged to the Yavteshwar Mahadev Temple Trust managed by the Vadodara district collector.
As per the case detail, the said trust was registered in 1952 under provisions of the Gujarat Public Trust Act, 1950, with its affairs managed by the government through the collector as ex officio trustee and administrator.
However, in 1956, the name of His Highness the Maharaja of Baroda, Fatehsinghrao Gaekwad, was entered as the occupant of the entire land. When the Vadodara collector learnt about it, he wrote letters seeking clarity over the issue and then approached the charity commissioner for an inquiry.
The Maharaj of the erstwhile Baroda state objected to the application, claiming the disputed land was his private property and formed part and parcel of the sprawling Laxmi Vilas Palace, which belongs to him as per the accession agreement signed with the Union of India.
He claimed he has been in possession of the disputed land since the time of his predecessors as rulers of the Baroda state, and his title was established after the execution of the accession agreement.
When the assistant charity commissioner concluded that the disputed land belonged to the temple trust, the Maharaja challenged it before the joint charity commissioner, who dismissed his plea and two other appeals.
The erstwhile Maharaja then approached the district court, which similarly dismissed the appeals, after which the appellants approached the HC in 1991.
While dismissing the appeals, the HC observed such persistence and prolonged litigation strained judicial resources and consumed the court’s precious time.
“The deity, ie Yavteshwar Mahadev, has been kept in the limitless litigation from claiming legitimacy of the immovable property vested in Him by the then Maharaja of the Baroda State, HH Govindrao Gaekwad,” the court noted.
“Such an attempt has burdened this court since 1991 and such an attempt directly intervened with the general administration of justice and hampered the court’s recious time,” it observed.
At the same time, the HC asked both parties to maintain status quo with regard to title and possession of the disputed property and gave four weeks’ time to the first appellants to approach a higher court. PTI KA PD RSY
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