Temple Collapsing From Age Isn't Priests' Fault, Says MP High Court, Quashes Removal Order

The Madhya Pradesh High Court at Gwalior has set aside a nearly two-decade-old removal order against the hereditary priests of a temple in Shivpuri district, holding that a temple structure falling down due to age and neglect cannot, by itself, be treated as misconduct on the part of the priests who managed it.

Justice Milind Ramesh Phadke was hearing a writ petition filed by the legal heirs of Narayan Das, the original priest of the Radha Gopalji Shri Ram Jankiji temple in village Kolaras. The petitioners challenged a 2004 order of the Collector, Shivpuri, directing their removal as priests and ordering reconstruction of the temple, along with orders of the Divisional Commissioner and the Upper Chief Secretary that upheld the removal.

The temple and adjoining agricultural land had originally been granted to the petitioners' ancestors by Madhav Rao Scindia in the early twentieth century for the temple's upkeep. Revenue records from 1951 to 1961 recorded the temple as Bhumiswami, with no entry showing the State as owner. It was only in 1976-77 that the Collector's name was entered as manager of the land, a change the petitioners said was made without their knowledge.

Trouble began when local residents complained that the priests had mismanaged the property, allowed encroachment, and misappropriated income, and alleged that the Radha Gopalji temple no longer stood at its original site. An inquiry ordered by the Sub-Divisional Officer, Kolaras, found otherwise. The Superintendent Land Manager, Gwalior, who conducted a spot inspection, reported that the old structure had simply collapsed from age and disrepair, and that the idols had been moved in 1972 to the nearby Ram Jankiji temple to keep worship going. The report found no financial irregularity or land grab. Acting on this, the Sub-Divisional Officer dropped the removal proceedings in January 2004 and recommended government funding to rebuild the temple.

The Collector, however, reversed this finding on appeal in August 2004, ignoring the Superintendent Land Manager's report altogether, and the Commissioner and the Upper Chief Secretary later upheld the removal in separate appellate and revisional orders.

Senior Advocate V K Bhardwaj, appearing with Advocate Anand V Bhardwaj for the petitioners, argued that these orders ignored the inquiry report and amounted to "non-application of mind." He also relied on an earlier verdict of the same court, in a 2005 writ petition, which had already held that the temple land vested in the deity and not the State merely because revenue records described it as "Milkiat Sarkar" under the Aukaf department.

Government Advocate Shiraz Qureshi, for the State, countered that the land was Aukaf trust property under the Collector's custodianship, and that shifting the idols without permission was itself an irregularity requiring stricter management.

The Court disagreed with the State's position. It found that "mere existence of local complaints cannot constitute sufficient basis for removal of hereditary priests who have admittedly been managing the affairs of the temple for decades unless such allegations are substantiated by credible evidence." On the shifting of the idols, the Court observed that this "cannot be treated as misconduct or abandonment of duty," calling it instead a reflection of "diligence and devotion" toward preserving the deity's sanctity.

The bench also noted that a Panchnama executed by villagers of the area and a certificate issued by the Nagar Panchayat, Kolaras, backed the petitioners' claim that they had continuously and properly discharged their duties as priests without complaint from the local community. It held that the Collector's appellate order had reversed the Sub-Divisional Officer's "well-reasoned findings" without pointing to any independent material or perversity in the original inquiry.

Concluding that the removal orders were "arbitrary, unsupported by evidence, and vitiated by non-consideration of relevant material," the Court quashed the orders of the Collector, the Commissioner, and the Upper Chief Secretary, and restored the January 2004 order dropping proceedings against the priests. The writ petition, pending since 2010, was accordingly allowed and disposed of.

Case Title: Narayan Das (Deleted)(A) through LRs Pradeep Bairagi and Others vs. State of M.P. and Others

Date of Order: July 16, 2026

Bench: Justice Milind Ramesh Phadke