Banke Bihari Temple row: SC to suspend committee under ordinance till Allahabad HC decides validity

The Supreme Court on Friday indicated that it will set up a committee led by a former high court judge to run the affairs of Banke Bihari Temple at Vrindavan, Mathura and asked the petitioners challenging the validity of Banke Bihari Ji Temple Trust Ordinance, 2025 to move the Allahabad High Court.

A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the committee set up under the ordinance will be kept in abeyance for the time being and the petitioners should approach the Allahabad High Court to challenge the ordinance.

“We will grant you liberty to challenge the ordinance before the high court. The constitution of the committee as per the ordinance will be kept in abeyance so that the ordinance is not given effect till the matter is decided by the high court. In the interregnum, we will constitute a committee headed by a former high court judge,” the bench told the petitioners.

The bench said it will add some local officials in the committee and will authorise the committee’s chairman to have some Goswamis — the traditional caretakers of the temple — to run the temple’s affairs.

A formal order will be out by Saturday, Justice Kant said.

The bench indicated that it will recall the directions in its May 15 judgment by a coordinate bench that allowed the Uttar Pradesh Government to use temple funds for the redevelopment project.

The bench also questioned the use of “intemperate language” used by the high court against the UP Government after Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj pointed out that the high court conducted “parallel proceedings” and made certain “unwarranted observations”.

“What kind of intemperate language is being used by the high court? Like the state committed a sin by passing an ordinance. What is all this? Was the high court not informed that the Supreme Court was seized of the matter?” the bench said.

Staying the observations of the high court, the top court asked the Allahabad High Court Chief Justice to consider listing the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the ordinance before a division bench.

Questioning the tearing hurry in promulgating an ordinance to take over the management of Banke Bihari Temple; the Supreme Court had on August 4 said it would keep in abeyance its May 15 nod to Banke Bihari Temple Corridor at Vrindavan in Mathura as main stakeholders were not heard. It had questioned the clandestine manner in which the UP Government secured its permission to use temple funds for the corridor development project and then promulgated an ordinance to transfer control and administration of the temple to the state.

The state government has defended the ordinance promulgated by it, saying “The ordinance is solely to improve the temple administration. Thousands of devotees visit daily; fund mismanagement needs to be prevented.”