Supreme Court Of India Gives Monk 4 Years To Vacate Portion of Babulnath Temple in Mumbai

Supreme Court Of India Gives Monk 4 Years To Vacate Portion of Babulnath Temple in Mumbai

The Supreme Court has ordered a septuagenarian monk to evict an occupied portion in the iconic Babulanath Temple of Mumbai in four years and upheld the Bombay High Court’s order directing his eviction.

It’s rare for the top court to give such a long duration to evict the space or premise, but the advanced age of 75 years of the monk who has renounced the world and is leading a religious and spiritual life, weighed upon the court.

The dispute concerns a small area on a landing of the staircase leading to the centuries-old Babulnath Temple in Gamdevi of Mumbai.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh, which was hearing the plea of Jagannath Giri, represented by senior advocate Shoeb Alam, said nothing had been brought before the court which would warrant interference with the well-reasoned and concurrent finding of the facts and law by the Small Causes Court and the appellate bench, nor with the order passed by the high court under Article 227 of the Constitution.

It dismissed the appeal filed by Giri against the November 6 last year order of the high court.

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The court announced the order notwithstanding the continuous possession of the portion of the temple since about 1968, with rent paid, but also considered the submission that the petitioner is in the autumn of his life and leading a religious and spiritual life.

“…we are inclined to grant a period of four years to the petitioner before he hands over vacant possession of the said premise of the temple to the respondent/plaintiff Temple Trust, so as to enable the petitioner to secure alternative accommodation,” the bench said.

The top court said that as long as the monk stays in the temple premises, he would do it peacefully and shall not cause any obstruction in the development of the temple premises.

It also directed that the temple authorities must ensure that no third party is allowed to occupy the place being used by the petitioner, nor cause any disturbance to him.

According to the order uploaded by the top court recently, Giri is the legal heir and representative of the original defendant Baba Brahmanandji Maharaj, who was allowed to use a portion of the Babulnath Temple on the landing of the main staircase of the temple, and has been stated to be occupying it since about 1968.

The premise was let out to Baba Ramgiri Maharaj in 1927.

The top court said Baba Ramgiri Maharaj continued residing in the suit premises until his demise, whereupon the defendant, Baba Brahmanandji Maharaj, being his disciple, took over possession and continued as a tenant.

The problem started when the temple trustees filed a suit before the Small Causes Court in Mumbai seeking his eviction.

On October 18, 1996, the court decreed the suit and directed Brahmanandji Maharaj to hand over the possession of the suit premises to the Temple.

An aggrieved defendant went before the appellate bench of the Small Causes Court, which, on June 22, 2001, dismissed his appeal.

The defendant then moved the Bombay High Court for relief.

During the pendency of the writ petition before the high court, Baba Brahmanandji Maharaj died, and Jagannath Giri was impleaded as his legal representative, who continues to possess the premises under contention.

The high court, however, declined to interfere with the concurrent finding of facts and law arrived at by the Small Causes Court and the appellate bench and dismissed the petition on November 6, 2025.

It observed that its supervisory jurisdiction is of limited scope and was essentially for ensuring that the orders passed by the courts below remain within the confines of law and that it cannot reappreciate evidence.