JURISTIC PERSON

Oct. 9, 2019

Among the parties in the Ayodhya title suit, appeals are being heard by the Supreme Court filed is Lord Ram himself — Ramlalla Virajman — represented by His “next friend”, the late Deoki Nandan Agrawal, a former judge of Allahabad High Court.

About:

  • Meaning: A juristic person, as opposed to a “natural person” (that is, a human being), is an entity whom the law vests with a personality. In other words, it is not an individual natural person but an artificially created person which is to be recognised to be in law as such.”

  • Examples: Gods, corporations, rivers, and animals, have all been treated as juristic persons by courts.
    • In May 2019, the Punjab and Haryana High Court held that the “entire animal kingdom” has a “distinct legal persona with corresponding rights, duties, and liabilities of a living person”.

    • In March 2017, the Uttarakhand High Court declared that the Ganga and Yamuna would be legally treated as “living people” The order was stayed by the Supreme Court in July that year because it “raised several legal questions and administrative issues”.



  • In Hinduism: While God as an abstract concept is not a juristic entity, installed deities at Hindu places of worship have been treated like other real persons for the purpose of law. However, not every deity is a legal person. This status is given to an idol only after its public consecration for the public at large.

  • Other than Hinduism: A mosque has never been held as a juristic person, because it’s a place where people gather to worship; it is not an object of worship itself. Neither has a church.