HC stays govt order on temple land

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Justice Motilal B Naik and Justice D Subramanyam on Thursday stayed the operation of a government order providing for regularisation of encroachments on temple lands in the state. <br />The order was made in a writ petition filed by Congress functionary K Rajashekar who complained that the government''s decree dated July 4 permitted alienation of properties belonging to Hindu temples and maths to encroachers.<br />The petitioner''s counsel S Ramachandra Rao argued that the government decision was an attempt to enable encroachers to rob the temple property. <br />The bench appointed advocate M Chandrashekar Rao to assist the court on the question whether the government has the power to sell property belonging to various temples. <br />The petitioner complained that the order was a step in aid to siphon off about 3.76 lakh acres of temple lands. <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Ruling on evictions</span> <br />A division bench of the AP High Court comprising Justice Motilal B Naik and Justice D Subramanyam on Thursday directed the state government to maintain status quo with regard to its decision to evict alleged tribal encroachers from land in their possession in the scheduled areas in the state. The bench made the interim order while admitting a public interest writ petition filed by SAKTI, an NGO working for tribals. The petitioner also sought a further direction to the state government to ensure issue of patta to the tribals for the land in their possession. As per the observations made by the SC, the government issued a circular purporting to act as per the same. </div> </div>