TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1974 (10) TMI 104
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....on question of law arises for consideration in all these appeals and the learned counsel in all the appeals adopted the arguments of Mr. Tarkunde, the learned counsel for the appellant (in Civil Appeal No. 746 of 1971) the facts of that appeal alone need be stated and this judgment will govern all the appeals. The appellant is the Managing Trustee of the Trust of the Temples of Laxminarayan Deo of Vadtal and is the Acharya of the Gadi of the Swaminarayan Sampraday at Vadtal which is a public trust registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act. Under the scheme of the Trust the appellant is authorised to look after the management of the properties of the Trust. It is not disputed that the Swaminarayan Sampraday is a religious denomination which believes in Lord Krishna and Radha. The Institution holds Devasthan Inam lands and the appellant challenges the constitutional validity of the Gujarat Devasthan Inams Abolition Act, 1969 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The Act came into force on November 15, 1969 and it extends to the Bombay area of the State of Gujarat. The preamble shows that it is an Act "to abolish inams held by religious or charitable institution in the Bom....
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....om, settlement, grant, agreement, sanad or order or anything contained in any decree or order of a court or any law, for the time being applicable to any Devasthan inam, with effect on and from the appointed,day- (a) all Devasthan inams except in so far as they consist of a grant or recognition as a grant of cash allowance or allowance in kind shall be and are hereby abolished; (b) save as expressly provided by or under this Act all rights legally subsisting immediately before the said day, in the Devasthan inams so abolished and all other incidents of such inams shall be and are hereby extinguished; and (c) subject to the other provisions of this Act, all Devasthan lands shall be and are hereby made liable to the payment of land revenue in accordance with the provisions of the Code and the rules made thereunder, and accordingly the provisions therein relating to unalienated land shall apply to all Devasthan lands". Sections 6 and 7 say also be quoted: 6."Occupancy rights in respect of Devasthan land.-In the case of a Devasthan land, the person deemed to be the occupant primarily liable to the State Government for payment of land revenue in respect of such land in ac....
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....ance in kind, there shall be paid to the inamdar as compensation for the abolition of all his rights in Devasthan inam, in the form of an annuity in perpetuity-- (a) a sum of money equal to an average of the full assessment lawfully leviable on all the lands comprised in such inam during a period of three years immediately preceding the appointed day, if the grant consisted of grant of soil with or without exemption from payment of land revenue. (b) a sum of money equal to an average of the amount of land revenue or, as the case may be, the share in such land revenue received or due to the inamdar during a period of three years immediately preceding the appointed day, if the grant consisted of assignment of land revenue or a share in such land revenue. Section 10 provides for the method of awarding compensation to inamdar. Section 11 may be set out " Method of awarding compensation for abortion etc. of rights of other person in property.- (1) If any person is aggrieved by the provisions of this Act as abolishing, extinguishing or modifying any of his rights to or interest in, property and if compensation for such abolition, extinguishment or modification has not been provi....
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....e) shall so far as may be applicable, apply". x x xx 2. Similarly under section 3 of the Gujarat Agricultural Lands Act, 1960, after subsection (2) a new-sub-section (3) has been inserted which reads as under : "(3) The Devasthan lands which immediately before the date of the commencement of the Gujarat Devasthan Inams Abolition Act, 1969 (Gujarat 16 of 1969) were exempted under clause (d) of sub-section (1) shall with effect on and from the said date cease to be exempted lands" From the foregoing provisions of the Act set out above it is clear that the Act is passed in furtherance of agrarian reforms and that is not disputed before us. According to the appellant as a consequence of the enforcement of the Act his rights in respect of 729 bighas of Devasthan inam lands will be extinguished. Action was also taken under the Bombay Land Revenue Code in order to effect changes in the record of rights imposing liability to land revenue in view of the abolition of Devasthan Inams under the Act. Some other notices under the Act have also been served on the appellant to hand over his record as inamdar. That led to the application under article 226 of the Constitution in....
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.... the first objection the learned counsel submits that the Act violates Article 26(c) of the Constitution which offers to every religious denomination the fundamental right "to own and acquire movable and immovable property" subject only to "public order, morality and health". He submits that the Act aims at agrarian reform but is not concerned with "public order, morality and health". Since it deprives religious denominations of their ownership of property, it transgresses Article 26(c) and is invalid. He also draws our attention to Article 25(1) which has subjected the rights therein not only to public order, morality and health, but also to "the other provisions of Part III". Ho, therefore, submits that the right guaranteed under Article 26(c) is Rot subject to "the other pro visions of Part III" and therefore, there cart be no acquisition of property under Article 31 of the Constitution. Articles 25 to 28 in Part III of the Constitution are placed under a sub-title "Right to Freedom of Religion" and deal with matters in the background of that freedom. It is true that Article 25 is made subject to "public order, mo....
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....he two Articles. One. thing is, however, clear that Article 26 guarantees intervals the right to own and acquire movable and immovable property for managing religious affairs. This right, however, cannot take away the right of the State to compulsorily acquire property in accordance with the provisions of Article 31(2). If, on the other hand, acquisition of property of a religious denomination by the State can- be proved to be such as to destroy or completely negative its right to own and acquire movable and immovable property for even the survival of a religious institution the question may have to be examined in a different light. That kind of a factual position, however, is not taken in these appeals before us. When, however, property is acquired by the State in accordance with law and with the provisions of Article 31(2) and the acquisition cannot be assailed on any valid ground open to the person concerned, be it a religious institution, the right to own that property vanishes as that right is transferred to the State. Thereafter there is no question of any right to own the particular property subject to public order, morality and health and Article 26 will in the circumstance....
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.... authority would amount to a violation of the right guaranteed under clause (d) of article 26." We do not think that the above opinion of the Court in that case is of any assistance to the appellants. The first and the second submissions of the learned counsel are, therefore, of no avail. When we look at the object of the Act and of the various provisions enacted in furtherance of agrarian reform, the Act is squarely protected under the saving provision of Article 31A. But it is then submitted that Article 31A does not provide against the vice of contravention of Article 26 while Articles 14, 19 and 31 are expressly mentioned in Article 3 1 A. The question, therefore, arises whether the right under Article 26(c) is an absolute and unqualified right to the extent that no agrarian reform can touch upon the lands owned by the religious de. nominations. No rights in an organised society can be absolute. Enjoyment of one's rights must be consistent with the enjoyment of rights also by others. Where in a free play of social forces it is not possible to bring about a voluntary harmony, the State has to step in to set right the imbalance between competing interests and there the Dir....