JUDGMENT

1. Mr. Choudhury, learned advocate appears on behalf of petitioners and submits, on requirement by the registering authority, to produce 'No Objection' certificate, obtained from the Commissioner of Endowments, his clients applied for the same. By impugned judgment dated 18th May, 2019, the Commissioner of Endowments imposed condition of making fixed deposit to be pledged in favour of the Commissioner and restrictions on dealing with the accruals. He refers to sections 1 and 19-A in Odisha Hindu Religious Endowments Act, 1951 to demonstrate that the Legislature mandated control thereby of public religious institutions. He submits, the Commissioner did so on finding his clients had private deity.

2. He relies on views taken by two divisions Benches of the Court. firstly, order dated 3rd March, 2020 in W.P.(C) no.29423 of 2019 (Sachimani Paikray and others vs. State of Odisha and another), from where a passage is extracted and reproduced below.

'The same also makes it clear that such 'No Objection Certificate' has to be granted in Form-AA and nowhere the learned Commissioner is empowered to put conditions while granting such certificate.'

Secondly, Gopal v. State, reported in 20