Good lord! Court sends notice to Ram, Hanuman

CALLING THE LORDS: The Gods are to appear in court if notices issued in their names by a judge here

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Keywords: Petition, Court

Dhanbad: Hindu Gods, Ram and Hanuman, it seems, will have to appear in court if notices issued in their names by a judge here "reach" them.

A district sub-judge gave the order on a petition over a dispute involving a temple at Dahaiya locality where Lord Ram and Lord Hanuman are worshipped.

The court staff even went to the temple to serve the notices but there was no one to receive them.

The temple, dedicated to Lord Ram and Lord Hanuman, was offered by the Raja of Jharia to the grandfather of Hindi writer Manmohan Pathak in 1922.

A villager, Puran Chandra Halder, who regularly held Durga puja adjacent to the temple, petitioned the Dhanbad district commissioner in 1987 to declare the temple a public property. The ruling went in his favour.

The Pathak family then approached the Patna High Court citing a survey settlement of 1922 and obtained a decree in their favour in 1990.

Following this, in 1993 Halder petitioned the district sub-judge to declare the temple public property and made Lord Ram and Lord Hanuman as parties in the case.

The temple was declared public property by the sub-judge's court in 2005.

In February 2007, the district and sessions judge referred the matter to the additional district judge, fast track court which issued notice to Halder and Lord Ram and Lord Hanuman to appear before it.

Halder appeared on February 17, and summons were issued against the gods. But the summons could not be served on them as there was no one to receive them, counsel for the Pathaks, P N Bhattacharjee said.