SC paves way for Banke Bihari Temple corridor
The Supreme Court on Thursday paved the way for the Shri Banke Bihari Temple corridor project in Vrindavan for the benefit of millions of devotees.
A Bench of Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma allowed the Uttar Pradesh Government to utilise the funds of the Shri Banke Bihari Temple for the purchase of five-acre land around it to create a holding area.
“We permit the state of UP to implement the scheme in its entirety. The Banke Bihari Ji Trust is having fixed deposits in the name of the deity/temple...the state government is permitted to utilise the amount lying in the fixed deposit to acquire the land proposed,” it said.
On an average, the famous Banke Bihari Temple at Vrindavan registers footfall of 30,000 to 40,000 devotees a day, which touches 1.5 lakh on weekends and goes up to five lakh on special festival days such as Krisna Janmashtami. Spread over five acre land — from the banks of the Yamuna to the Banke Bihari Temple, the project on its completion would accommodate up to 50,000 visitors at a time.
The Supreme Court ordered that the acquired land shall be registered in the name of the deity. It modified the order of the Allahabad High Court, which had prohibited the purchase of land around the temple using its funds.
“The state of UP has undertaken to incur costs of more than Rs 500 crores to develop the corridor. However, they propose to utilise the temple funds for purchasing the land in question; which was denied by the HC vide order dated November 8, 2023. We permit the state to implement the scheme in its entirety,” it said.
The top court’s approval to the state government’s development plan for the Shri Banke Bihari Temple Corridor came particularly in light of incidents such as the 2022 stampede at the Banke Bihari Temple.
