Misconceived: Bombay High Court dismisses plea against Kolhapur temple trustees

Mumbai,UPDATED: Apr 10, 2024 16:25 IST

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea seeking transfer of a case against trustees of Balumama temple in Kolhapur after noticing that there was not even an FIR registered against the trustees by the petitioners.

Advocate Nimesh Mehta, representing some devotees of the temple, submitted that there were allegations of siphoning off trust money worth crores of rupees by some of the trustees who had allegedly also sold some of the land belonging to the temple trust without the requisite permission.

However, the bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor found that the prayer seeking transfer of investigation to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was thoroughly "misconceived" as there was no FIR registered by the devotees who had approached the court. The plea stated that there had been a criminal breach of trust by the trustees and so the state should be directed to constitute an SIT.

"In the absence of any FIR or a criminal complaint, since the question of investigation does not arise, the prayer is misconceived."

The plea had also sought that a direction be issued to transfer an application before Joint Charity Commissioner, Kolhapur division, to any other charity commissioner to ensure a fair trial and to protect the interests of the devotees. However, the court found that the application under consideration by the joint commissioner was not filed by the petitioners but by someone else.

The bench said that when the petitioner is not a party to the proceedings, thus seeking transfer of a petition will not be tenable. The court thus refused to indulge them and dismissed the PIL.