The State unit of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Wednesday welcomed the Himachal Pradesh High Court’s (HC) decision to bar the State Government, deputy commissioners, and temple officials from diverting temple donations to the public exchequer or using them for general development works.
Temple funds cannot be diverted, transmitted or donated to any Government welfare schemes or any other activity not related to the temple or religion, as devotees make donations believing that these would be used for the care of deities, the shrine, and the promotion of Sanatan Dharma, the High Court said on Friday.
Disposing of a civil writ petition seeking appropriate utilisation of temple funds, the court issued elaborate instructions on the use of such funds and also
specified the purposes for which temple funds cannot be used. Talking to mediapersons in Hamirpur, Pankaj Bhartiya, joint secretary of the Himachal unit of the VHP, welcomed the court decision and demanded that the entire control of Hindu temples be given to ‘sanatani’ people like before.
“The decision of the High Court also proves that all was not well in the temples being governed by trusts led by the state Government,” Bhartiya said, as he cited instances in which temple money was “misused”, including the Baba Balak Nath temple in Hamirpur.
On Friday, a bench of Justices Vivek Singh Thakur and Rakesh Kainthla said that under the Hindu Public Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act, 1984, temple funds can be used only for the care of deities, maintaining temple spaces and promotion of Sanatan Dharma.
