Allahabad High Court: no deity without idol, no right to sue

The Allahabad High Court has ruled that a gift deed promising to install an idol in the future does not create a juristic person if the idol is never consecrated or installed. It held that people claiming devotion to the deity have no legal right to sue on its behalf. Justice Anil Kumar-X said the suit's foundation disappeared because no idol was ever installed.

The case involved a 1949 deed that gave land to Kailash Nath Agrawal on the condition that an idol of Lord Rama be installed there. The plaintiffs, describing themselves as next friends of the deity, sued Agrawal's heirs for transferring parts of the property. The defendants argued that no temple or idol ever existed and that they had openly owned the property for decades.

The High Court noted that no temple was built, no priest appointed, and no provision for worship was made. It upheld concurrent findings that the deed was a personal gift, not a religious endowment, and that the restraint on alienation was void. Livelaw.in reports the court dismissed the appeal, finding no substantial question of law and holding that the plaintiffs had no locus standi.