JUDGMENT :

Ramesh Ranganathan, J.

The Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act, 2019 (for short the “2019 Act”) is the latest, in a long line of enactments, made by various States all over the country, both before and after the advent of the Constitution, entrusting management of Hindu temples to a Board whose Chairman and members are, by and large, nominated by the State Government. The statement of objects and reasons for introducing the 2019 Bill records the need to make legal provisions, for temples and devasthanams located in Uttarakhand, similar to Shri Vaishno Devi Mata Temple, the Sai Baba, the Puri Jagannath and Somnath temples.

2. Shri Mata Vaishno Devi temple, in Jammu & Kashmir, is under the management and supervision of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board constituted under the J&K Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act, 1988. Shri Jagannath Temple at Puri is under the control of a temple management committee constituted under the Shri Jagannath Temple Act, 1955. A challenge to its constitutional validity, on the touch-stone of Article 26-(d) of the Constitution of India, was rejected by the Orissa High Court in Ram Chandra Deb v. State of Orissa AIR 1959 Ori 5, and