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PETITIONER: NAR HARI SASTRI AND OTHERS
Vs.
RESPONDENT: SHRI BADRINATH TEMPLE COMMITTEE.
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 09/05/1952
BENCH: MUKHERJEA, B.K. BENCH: MUKHERJEA, B.K. FAZAL ALI, SAIYID DAS, SUDHI RANJAN
CITATION: 1952 AIR 245 1952 SCR 849 CITATOR INFO : R 1971 SC2540 (16) RF 1987 SC2064 (7)
ACT: Hindu law--Religious Endowments--Right to worship--Right of Pandas to accompany worshippers to temple--Bye-law of temple committee to prohibit taking of gifts within temple precincts --Validity--Badrinath Temple Act, 1939, ss. 3, 4.
HEADNOTE: The right of the Deoprayagi Pandas to enter the Badri- nath Temple along with their Yajmans is not a precarious or permissive right depending for its existence on the arbi- trary discretion of the temple authorities; it is a legal right in the true sense of the expression, but it can be exercised only subject to the restrictions which the temple committee may impose in good faith for maintenance of order and decorum within the temple and for ensuring proper per- formance of customary worship. There is nothing in the Badrinath Temple Act, 1 939, which vests in the temple committee or the idol, gifts made to Pandas within the precincts of the temple. But bye-law (8) of the Puja Bye-laws framed by the temple committee which forbids the acceptance of gifts by any person within the precincts of t...