India, Sept. 8 -- The Orissa high court has dismissed a plea by a group of people claiming ownership of revenue land belonging to Lord Jagannath Temple in Puri, citing decades-long possession and government-issued identity proofs. Delivering his judgement, justice Sanjeeb K. Panigrahi ruled that decades of residence, ration cards or voter IDs cannot ripen into ownership over temple land impressed with a public purpose.

Over a hundred families, mostly daily-wage earners, have been living for more than five decades in Cuttack which is officially part of Jagannath's Amrutamanohi holdings.

"The land in dispute is an Amrutamanohi property of Lord Jagannath, recorded in the name of the deity, and the petitioners are unauthorised occupants," t...