The Supreme Court has taken direct control over the troubled management of Vrindavan’s famed Thakur Shree Banke Bihari Ji Maharaj Temple, appointing a high-powered panel led by former Allahabad High Court judge Ashok Kumar to restore order and dignity to the shrine’s operations.
The committee’s mission is both practical and ambitious — ensure clean drinking water, functional washrooms, shaded areas, orderly crowd movement, and facilities for the elderly and disabled, while also tackling crowd control and festival-day safety. Beyond basic amenities, it has the authority to draw up a blueprint for the temple’s holistic development, including land acquisition if required.
In a sharply worded observation, the Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi lamented that “administrative deadlocks and infighting” had left the temple flush with donations but devoid of essential services for the lakhs who visit each year. The judges said a strong, centralised body was now essential to run daily affairs.
Alongside Justice Kumar, the panel will include a retired District & Sessions Judge, senior district officials, police leadership, the Mathura Vrindavan Development Authority’s vice-chairman, an Archaeological Survey of India representative, an eminent architect, and members from both Goswami groups associated with the temple.
The move came while the Court refused to quash the Uttar Pradesh Shri Bankey Bihari Ji Temple Trust Ordinance, 2025 — legislation aimed at replacing the temple’s 1939 management scheme with a state-controlled trust. Instead, the Bench froze only those parts of the ordinance that give the state power to form such a trust, pending a High Court ruling on its constitutional validity within a year.
The Court also set aside a July 2025 Allahabad High Court order questioning the state’s authority to issue the ordinance, directing that all related petitions be heard by a division bench. In another significant shift, it rolled back a previous Supreme Court nod allowing temple funds to be used for land purchase, restoring the High Court’s earlier order barring such use.
With this sweeping intervention, the Supreme Court has not only stalled a governance crisis but also set in motion what could be the most comprehensive reform in the temple’s modern history — one aimed at ensuring that its spiritual grandeur is matched by basic human dignity for those who come to worship.
