"Don't monkey with us!"

The ABC reports that two people in India - engaged in a property dispute have actually called on the Gods to assist them.

The dispute is about a temple dedicated to Ram and Hanuman. It was initially given by the province's king in the 1920s to the family of Manmohan Pathak, who has said he is the temple's rightful owner.

Local worshipper Puran Chandra Halder, successfully petitioned for the temple to be declared public property in 1987.

The dispute has gone on ever since and this time a judge in the eastern state of Jharkhand issued notices to the revered Ram, the most worshipped incarnation of one of the deities in the Hindu trinity, and to the monkey god Hanuman.

Court officers apparently went to the temple at the heart of the property dispute to deliver the summons, but found no one willing to accept the orders on behalf of the gods.

Not surprising really - it's bad enough to get caught up in the middle of a dispute that has been going on since 1987 - you would not want to anger the gods any further by claiming to speak on their behalf.

I wonder whether the Gods are just too busy these days off the Island of Bali trying to shake up the Climate Change conference with a small earthquake to attend to more irksome domestic matters?