Supreme Court forms committee for Banke Bihari temple development in Vrindavan

The Supreme Court has established an 11-member interim high-powered committee, led by Justice Ashok Kumar, to oversee the Banke Bihari temple’s operations and plan its holistic development. The court permitted the Uttar Pradesh government to acquire land for a corridor similar to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi also gave green signal to the Uttar Pradesh govt to proceed with the acquisition of land around the temple required for developing a corridor on the lines of the one built for the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi. Without expressing any opinion on the legality of the state’s ordinance for developing the temple and its surrounding as well as building the corridor by taking Rs 200 crore from the temple fund, the bench said it is for the Allahabad HC to decide the validity of the ordinance. It requested the HC to decide the constitutionality of the ordinance within one year of fresh writ petitions filed against it. Rejecting applications filed by pujaris and other interested persons objecting to suggestions for improving the temple functioning, the bench said, “We see absolutely no merit in these objections, at this stage, especially when we have granted liberty to challenge the ordinance before the HC.”