Concerned over the massive encroachment of government land by religious/charitable unincorporated organisations, the Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the State government to conduct an investigation through its agencies such as the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau into the grabbing of public property by various people and institutions.
Justice P. Somarajan, while dealing with a case filed by George Alencherry, Major Archbishop, Syro-Malabar Church, directed the State government to conduct a survey to find out such encroachments all over the State and complete it in six months. The court also directed that a Statewide high-power body be constituted to supervise the survey besides forming district-level bodies headed by the respective District Collectors.
Centralised body
The court also directed the Centre to explore the possibility of constituting a centralised force/body to address the issues pertaining to the income, expenditure, acquisition and disposal of assets of charitable organisations/religious institutions.
The court observed that “the public property, puramboke land, and government property still remain vulnerable to massive and organised rapacious encroachment. There is no provision for accounting of the assets and its utilisation by such unincorporated organisations, either so-called religious or charitable.”
The court said “the reprehensible inaction on the part of government, political leaders and society at large has given leverage to such massive assaults over the large tracts of properties all over Kerala by some religious/charitable institution/organisations added by the fact that it is quite easy for them to obtain pattayam under the bargain of vote bank they possessed. A congenial environment is still in existence in Kerala promoting encroachment on government land with the apparent acquisition of properties by such institutions. This has given immense wealth and authority to religious institutions to dominate the will of government machineries”.
Case in question
As for the Church property involved in the case, the court observed that the powers of attorney were invariably and indiscriminately used to ostensibly obtain property left out by an unincorporated charitable association by the appellation “Sisters of Destitute”.
The court noted that the property purchased for the benefit of the destitute was given to the “Alexian Brothers” by way of a sale deed.
No sanction under Section 92 of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) was obtained for alienating the property held in trust by “Sisters of Destitute” to another association by the name “Alexian Brothers”.If it is a property obtained in trust for the benefit of the destitute by an unincorporated association by the name “Sisters of Destitute”, it cannot simply be alienated or transferred.
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