Find out how many temples have governments taken over: SC to petitioner | India News
NEW DELHI: A ‘shebait’ of the Banke Bihari Ji temple at Vrindavan on Monday told Supreme Court that the Uttar Pradesh govt through an unconstitutional ordinance is attempting to take over a privately managed temple in the guise of a development plan.Appearing for ‘shebait’ Devendra Nath Goswami, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Amit Anand Tiwari told a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi that the temple has a corpus of Rs 300 crore and the sole intention of govt is to utilise this money for the Rs 500 crore development plan.While adjourning hearing on the petition, the bench said, “Please find out how many temples pan-India has been taken over by the state govts. Many temples in Tamil Nadu have been taken over by the state govt.”Sibal said the temples taken over in Tamil Nadu are public temples, unlike the Banke Bihari Ji temple which has been managed privately by two groups of ‘shebaits’ as per a Mathura Munsif court’s 1939 judicial order. There are no allegations of mismanagement or misappropriation of funds which could have been grounds for takeover, he said.Justice Kant told Sibal, “You go there and find out how it is managed. Two groups of ‘shebaits’ have been fighting for control of the temple since 1938 and have filed many suits. They come to court when govt wants to develop the area to provide devotees with amenities and smooth darshan.”The petitioner said the state did not have the legislative competence to promulgate the Uttar Pradesh Shri Banke Bihari Ji Temple Trust Ordinance, 2025, as it seeks to effectuate a forcible state takeover of a private temple.“The temple is admittedly private in character as it is administered by a religious denomination and governed by a judicially sanctioned scheme of management dated June 11, 1939, under which hereditary ‘shebait goswamis’ alone are vested with the rights and duties of managing the religious and administrative affairs of the deity/temple,” he said.“There is no record or finding of mismanagement, fund misuse, or maladministration on the part of the existing ‘shebait’-led management. Throughout the years, no allegations of financial irregularity or misgovernance have been levelled,” the petitioner said.The impugned ordinance is a “veiled attempt by the state to commercialise and monetise the private temple under the pretext of providing ‘world-class amenities’ to devotees”, he allleged. “The state’s approach to the temple is purely utilitarian and economic, treating it as a revenue generating tourist centre rather than as a sacred spiritual institution governed by ancient religious traditions,” the petitioner said.
