Entrust management of Machail to one of Shrine Boards: DB
In a Public Interest Litigation seeking constitution of Shrine Board at Machial Mata and for constituting a Special Investigation Team who will look into the financial irregularities and assets of the Sarv Shakti Sevak Sanstha, a Division Bench of J&K and Ladakh High Court comprising Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal while disposing of the PIL observed that it is also important to note that enactment of statutes separately for each shrine in the Union Territory as a whole may not be an appropriate and feasible exercise.
Therefore to have a consolidate and a uniform legislation for all the charitable and religious institutions and endowments within the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, we feel that it would be more appropriate and better if the government identifies all such institutions in the State/UT as a whole and endeavours to make a common law for all of them if necessary.
DB said we dispose of the petition finally leaving it open to the Advocate General or the public spirited persons having some interest in the temple to get a scheme of management prepared with the intervention of the court u/s 92 CPC and at the same time direct the Government of Union Territory to explore the possibility of a legislation in consonance with Acts enacted for the management and governance of similar shrines in the Union Territory or the country elsewhere. DB directed the Government to entrust the entire management of the Shrine in question to one of the Shrine Boards existing in the Union Territory in context with the other temples/shrines.
