‘In The Interest Of The Farmers’: Bombay HC Grants Permission To Shri Saibaba Sansthan Shirdi To Resume Offering Of Flowers

The Civil Application had been filed by Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust Shirdi through its Chief Executive Officer seeking permission of the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court to implement Resolution No.277 of the Trust’s ad hoc committee constituted pursuant to the interim arrangement devised for managing the affairs of the renowned trust.

The Division Bench comprising Justice Mangesh S. Patil and Justice Shailesh P. Brahme held, “The flowers could be made available by the farmers directly through the Credit Co-operative Society of the Employees of the trust/sanstha and can be made available to the devotees at a reasonable rate within the premises of the devasthan trust by displaying the rate card in and around the premises of the temple and it would be the responsibility of the Municipal Council and the police to ensure that no unauthorized flower vendors operate and there would be no middleman.”

Advocate Anil S. Bajaj represented the Applicant while Government Pleader A.B. Girase represented the Respondent-State.

It was the case of the Applicant - Sansthan that the ad hoc committee in its meeting by way of Resolution No.277 had decided to evolve the modalities for resuming offering of flowers to the deity. This decision was taken by after considering the report submitted by a committee headed by the District Collector which was constituted for considering all the pros and cons of resumption of the practice which was stopped because of enormous complaints by various stakeholders including the devotees who were being extorted for buying the flowers at an exorbitant rate as several miscreants had entered into the business.

In the wake of the pandemic, the practice of offering flowers was stopped. There was an agitation for resuming the practice and after due deliberation, the modalities were worked out in the form of detailed suggestions of the committee. It had been decided that the flowers would be purchased by a credit co-operative society being run by the employees of the Sansthan directly from the farmers and which would be sold through it in the premises of the temple at a reasonable rate. The applicants, in this case, were the farmers who sought permission to be granted to implement Resolution No.277 considering their welfare and the religious beliefs of the devotees.

The Bench took note of the detailed report of the Committee constituted under the Chairmanship of Collector Ahilyanagar for controlling the flower vendors around the sansthan/temple. In order to demonstrate that the High Court has a limited role in monitoring working of the ad hoc committee, the Bench presented a brief history by mentioning, “Essentially, it is the ad hoc committee which is supposed to take the decision for managing the affairs of the trust and if it is resulting in undertaking any major financial decision that, to this limited extent, a permission of this Court is required. This Court cannot run the management under the guise of granting permission to the decisions being taken by the ad hoc committee.”

Reference was made to the additional affidavit filed by the administrative officer of the Sansthan expressing as to how, earlier, such flowers and garlands offered were being disposed of in the form of giving it away to a self help group who was in to manufacturing of agarbatties by virtue of an agreement entered into between that foundation and the Sansthan/Trust 10% of the sale of agarbatties was to be deposited with the Sansthan and the arrangement was meant for three years.

The Bench opined, “If such used flowers and garlands are to be E-auctioned or disposed of by E-tender one wonders as to how there could be a stipulation superadded precisely for their use in manufacture of agarbatties.”

It was further observed that the Committee had resolved and concluded that it is in the interest of the farmers who were growing flowers over 384 hectares, the labourers and the businessman were dependent on and were affected by stoppage of the practice of offering flowers. As per the suggestions, the flowers could be made available by the farmers directly through the Credit Co-operative Society of the Employees of the trust/sanstha and could be made available to the devotees at a reasonable rate within the premises of the devasthan trust by displaying the rate card in and around the premises of the temple. It would be the responsibility of the Municipal Council and the police to ensure that no unauthorized flower vendors operate and there would be no middleman.

In this case, the Resolution merely sought to resume the practice apparently with a rider that the flowers would be purchased by the credit co-operative society of the employees of Santhan/trust and would be made available to the devotees at a reasonable rate within the premises of the temple. According to the Bench, this would not result in any financial implication, except in respect of disposal of such flowers and garlands offered to the deity.

“Since nothing had been mentioned in the resolution as to the manner in which it would be disposed of and being a perishable one requiring regular and prompt disposal, it would be appropriate that permission is granted to the Sansthan/trust for resuming offering of flowers/garlands as resolved by Resolution No.277, and calling upon the ad hoc committee to take appropriate decision at the earliest regarding the manner in which it decides to dispose of the waste to be generated by virtue of offering of the flowers/garlands”, the Bench held.

Cause Title: Shri Saibaba Sansthan Shirdi v. The State of Maharashtra [Neutral Citation: 2024:BHC-AUG:26914-DB]

Appearance:

Applicant: Advocate Anil S. Bajaj, Senior Advocate V.D. Hon, Advocates Ashwin Hon, P.S. Talekar & M/s Talekar and Associates

Respondent: GP A.B. Girase

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