‘Lord Krishna Was The First Mediator’ Supreme Court Rebukes UP Govt Over Banke Bihari Corridor Plan
Invoking the spirit of Lord Krishna as the “first mediator,” the Supreme Court on Monday strongly criticized the Uttar Pradesh government for the “clandestine manner” in which it took control of the Shri Banke Bihari Temple in Vrindavan and its funds for a proposed corridor project. A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi questioned the state’s “hurry” in passing an ordinance to this effect and proposed forming a new committee, potentially headed by a retired judge, to manage the temple while the ordinance’s validity is tested in the Allahabad High Court.
The top court expressed its disapproval of the state government’s move to use ₹500 crore from temple funds for the redevelopment, an approval it had secured from the Supreme Court on May 15. The bench orally proposed to keep that judgment in abeyance, signaling a major rethink. The court has given the UP government until Tuesday morning to respond to its proposal of appointing an interim committee of retired judges to oversee the temple’s management and the utilization of funds for improving pilgrim safety and infrastructure.
During the hearing, the court directed sharp questions at the state, asking why it had intervened in what was a private dispute over the temple’s management. “The matter before this Court did not pertain to the Banke Bihari temple… It was not a case of ‘no man’s land… Someone had to be heard on the behalf of the temple,” Justice Surya Kant reasoned. The court also questioned why the state did not simply acquire the land for the corridor by compensating private owners as per the law, instead of “hijacking” the litigation.
The temple’s former management, a hereditary priesthood of Shebaits, had argued that the ordinance was passed without giving them a hearing and effectively ejected the family that had been running the temple since its construction in 1862. The court suggested that under its proposed framework, the temple trust could challenge the UP government’s ordinance and seek to prevent interference in the temple’s rituals and management.
The demand for a redevelopment corridor arose after a tragic stampede-like incident during Janmashtami celebrations in 2022, which resulted in two deaths. Following this, in September 2023, the Allahabad High Court directed the UP government to devise a plan to manage crowd pressure and ensure pilgrim safety, leading to the current controversial corridor proposal. The Supreme Court’s intervention now sends the primary legal challenge back to the High Court while attempting to create a mediated path forward for one of northern India’s most revered pilgrimage sites.
