Orissa High Court appoints Executive Officer for Ram Mandir in Capital

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CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Wednesday appointed an OAS officer Bimal Prasad Patra as Executive Officer to manage the affairs of Ram Mandir near Kharavel Nagar in Bhubaneswar.

The division bench of Justice Sanju Panda and Justice Pramath Patnaik appointed Patra as Executive Officer in an interim order while adjudicating a dispute raised by Sri Ram Mandir Seva Samiti over the formation of a trust board by Commissioner of Endowments for the temple.

Sri Ram Mandir Seva Samiti had been managing the temple as a private hereditary trust after building the temple on one-acre land allotted to it by the Government on 90 years lease in 1969.

The Samiti had moved the High Court after the Commissioner of Endowments formed a trust board for the management of the temple in January. The Samiti sought High Court’s intervention on the ground that the order of Commissioner of Endowments was illegal as the Ram Mandir was a leasehold property. Earlier, the Court had issued a status quo order on February 22. The bench modified the status quo order and appointed the Executive Officer to manage the temple’s affairs till September 11, the date fixed for next hearing on the case.