Visakhapatnam: Admitting a contempt petition filed by the Sri Shanti Ashram, the Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to four persons who have refused to vacate 6.5 acres of the ashram land on the beach road here.
The respondents are Shobha Rani w/o Vivekananda, Gautham, Siddharta and Sridevi. The land is worth Rs.600 crore, the petitioners contended.
The court comprising judges Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih issued notice returnable on January 31 and directed the respondents to personally remain present in the court at 10.30am on January 31.
The Sri Shanti Ashram is an 87-year-old spiritual organisation spread over 10 acres of beach front land located in the heart of Visakhapatnam. The president of its management committee, advocate MN Aditya, said the Swamiji gave 6.4 acres of land as a conditional gift deed to his disciple Yogi Raghavendra in 1949.
The petitioners claimed that the gift deed had incorporated a condition that Raghavendra would run a naturopathy hospital, impart yoga classes and carry out spiritual activities. If these conditions are not met, the gift deed would be cancelled and the land would revert back to the Ashram, as per the gift deed.
“However, during his entire life Raghavendra did not fulfil any of these conditions. He rather carried out commercial activities there,” the court was told.
After the death of Raghavendra, one Gajula Vivekananda (now deceased) claiming to be the adopted son of Raghavendra, claimed the rights over this property.
The management of Ashram filed a case in the principal senior civil judge’s court for cancellation of the gift deed in 1999. The court dismissed the suit. The management later went to the appellant court principal senior civil judge and won a favourable decree.
The heirs of Vivekananda challenged the order in the AP High Court in 2005 but the petition was dismissed. As a last resort, the heirs filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court in 2023 against the judgment of the high court.
The Supreme Court on December 14, 2023, dismissed the SLP in the admission stage itself and asked the deed holders to vacate the premises by September end, 2024. The deed-holders continued occupying the land and hence the contempt petition.
