Visakhapatnam: Supreme Court of India has restored to Sri Shanti Ashram, the 87-year-old spiritual organisation, its 6.4 acres of beachfront land at Lawsons Bay in Visakhapatnam. The land is worth about ₹60 crore.
Sri Shanti Ashram managing committee president M.N. Aditya, a senior advocate of Visakhapatnam, told reporters on Sunday in 1949, ashram founder Omkar Swamiji made a conditional gift deed in favour of one of his disciples Yogi Raghavendra.
As per the deed, Yogi Raghavendra needed to run at the place a naturopathy hospital, impart yoga classes and carry out spiritual activities. If these conditions are not met, the gift deed would lapse and the land would revert to the ashram.
Ashram committee president Aditya said during his entire lifetime, Raghavendra did not fulfil any of the conditions. He instead carried out commercial activities.
After Raghavendra died, one Gajula Vivekananda (now dead) laid claim to the property saying he is the adopted son of Raghavendra. The ashram management filed a case in this regard in the court of principal senior civil judge in 1999 seeking cancellation of the gift deed. The court, however, dismissed the suit. The management then went to the appellant court and got a favourable decree.
Heirs of Vivekananda challenged this order in the AP High Court in 2005. But the High Court dismissed the petition. Against this judgment of the High Court, Vivekananda’s heirs filed a special leave petition (SLP) in 2023 in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on December 14, 2023, dismissed the SLP at the admission stage itself. The apex court asked the deed holders to vacate the premises by September end this year, ashram committee president Aditya stated.
Omkar Swamiji had founded the Sri Shanti Ashram at Thotapalli in erstwhile East Godavari district in 1917. The ashram runs schools in Visakhapatnam for children of the nearby fisherfolk families and the physically challenged, providing free hostel facility for 25 students.
“Once we get back the land, we will run more schools and expand our spiritual activities,” Aditya told reporters.
