Constitutional Duty Of State Is To Protect Devotees' Faith, Prevent Ill-Feelings Among Them For Non-Performing Of Daily Pujas: AP High Court

The Bench of Justice M. Ganga Rao further said that it is the bounden duty of the State Government to see that the temple premises should not be inundated due to leakage and seepage of water.

Case in brief

The case was related to Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swami Temple in the Mattapalli Village of Suryapet District.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh constructed Pulichintala reservoir across river Krishna near Pulichintala Village, Bellamkonda Mandal in Guntur District.

As a part of the project, it also constructed a protection wall around the temple to prevent the inundation of the temple from backwaters of the Pulichintala project.

The protection wall during the year 2009-2010 was constructed for a length of 140 mts. with a height of 18 mts, during the year 2013, 400 mts. length of wall was constructed with 14 mts. Height and lastly during the year 2018, 102 mts. length of the wall with a height of 14 mts. was constructed.

However, during 2019 floods, the Pulichintala project backwaters entered into the temple premises due to leakage and seepage of water from the protection wall.

The temple authorities made arrangements to bail out the water from the temple to perform regular puja and Utsav Murths were taken from the temple premises to the nearby Madras Choultry for performing Nitya pujas.

Thus, the petitioners alleged that the wall constructed around the temple isn't having the required strength to prevent the floodwaters and the wall was not constructed by not fully utilizing the budget allocated for construction of the wall.

They sent several representations for the construction of new protection wall with the latest scientific technology to arrest the leakage/seepage of backwaters of Pulichintala reservoir on Krishna River, by replacing the existing wall, however the same was not taken into consideration.

Thus, the petitioners sought direction to the respondents to construct a new protection wall with the latest scientific technology around the said temple immediately and to ensure that the reservoir water levels at Pulichintala project do not increase beyond 43.34 meters until the new protection wall is constructed.

Court's observations

The Court observed that though a decision to construct the protection wall around the temple to prevent inundation of the temple was taken and also a huge budgetary allocation of Rs.67.83 crores was earmarked, but a "meager amount" of Rs.2.06 crore only was spent.

Hence, the Court ruled that there were lapses on the part of authorities concerned in designing and constructing wall to prevent the entry of floodwater/backwaters into the temple premises.

Significantly, the Court remarked:

"Though having taken a decision at the highest level by the Government and allotted the substantial funds for the construction of protection of bunds and construction of walls, due to lapses on the part of the authorities concerned and for not constructing the required strength of wall and not taking effective preventive measures from seepage of water, the temple is being inundated forcing the closure of the temple without performing daily rituals, which will certainly affect the faith of the devotees and they apprehend ill-feeling of ominous."

Therefore, the Court ruled that it was the bounden duty of the respondent authorities to see that the temple premises should not be inundated due to leakage and seepage of water from the protection wall constructed around the temple and seepage of water from sub-soil of the temple and to take necessary required steps to prevent the inundation of the temple.

Accordingly, the Writ Petition was allowed and the respondent authorities were directed to take appropriate preventive steps to prevent inundation of the temple premises, including scientific remedial measures in order to see that the water leakage and seepage shall be arrested to prevent the inundation of the temple.

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