Explained: Why Uttarakhand Govt Has Withdrawn Char Dham Devasthanam Board Bill

The Pushkar Singh Dhami government in Uttarakhand has decided to withdraw the controversial Char Dham Devasthanam Board Bill. The declaration was made by the Chief Minister while addressing the news agency ANI in Dehradun. The announcement came ahead of the Uttarakhand Assembly elections.

¡°After studying all aspects of the issue, we have decided to withdraw the Chardham Devasthanam Board Act,¡± Dhami said.

Explained: Char Dham Devasthanam Board Bill | Unsplash

The Uttarakhand Char Dham Shrine Management Bill, 2019, was introduced in the state Assembly in December 2019 amidst the opposition from inside and outside the Vidhan Sabha. Since the board's inception in 2019, Chardham priests have demanded that it be abolished, claiming that it is an infringement of their traditional rights to the temples.

On Sunday, Dhami's high-level team investigating the Devasthanam Board matter submitted its findings to the chief minister in Rishikesh. CM Dhami tweeted, ¡°Considering the sentiments and interests of people, honour of priests and stakeholders and others associated with Char Dham and on the basis of the report of a high-level committee constituted under Manohar Kant Dhyani, the government has decided to repeal the Devasthanam Board Act.¡±

What was Char Dham Devasthanam Board?

After coming to power in 2017, former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat conceptualised the Char Dham Devasthanam Board. The state government wanted to create an autonomous organisation to oversee the char dhams, which included Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath, and Kedarnath, as well as 51 other temples in Uttarakhand.

Explained: Char Dham Devasthanam Board Bill | Wikimedia Commons

In order to achieve this goal, the Rawat government began researching comparable legislation in other states, primarily the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Trust Board of Andhra Pradesh and the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act 1988 of Jammu and Kashmir.

Following that, the Rawat cabinet approved the draft of the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Bill 2019, which was introduced in the state legislature in December 2019. The bill was passed in the midst of pandemonium in the House and protestors outside.

Opposition to the suggested law began almost as soon as it was conceived and approved by the Rawat cabinet in November of that year. The bill was renamed the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act 2019 after it was enacted. The board was, eventually, established on January 15, 2020, with the chief minister as chairman and the state culture and religious affairs minister as vice-chairman.

The board had 29 members, according to the regulations of the act. There were seven senior IAS officers on the board as ex-officio members, as well as 20 nominated members. Other ex-officio members included the Uttarakhand chief secretary, a senior IAS officer serving as CEO, secretaries of the departments of culture and religious affairs, tourism, and finance, and two joint-secretary-rank officials.

The board's nominated membership included a representative of the erstwhile state of Tehri, a maximum of six members of the state assembly, up to four members from donor groups, and a maximum of five members from tirth purohits with hereditary or other rights to Badrinath-Kedarnath, Yamunotri-Gangotri, and other temples involved. Anant Ambani, Mukesh Ambani's son, was also one of the board members among the donors.

Explained: Char Dham Devasthanam Board Bill | TOI

The board had jurisdiction over 53 temples. There were 49 Char Dham shrines and their affiliations among these temples. ChandraBadni Temple, Raghunath Temple Devprayag, Sem Mukhem Nagraja Temple, and Shri Raj Rajeshwari Devi Temple Raanihat were the remaining four temples in Tehri's district.

Affiliate temples were sister concerns of the Char Dham shrines, as the latter must meet the former's financial needs. Badrinath had thirty affiliated temples, whereas Kedarnath had seventeen.

Why were the priests opposing the board?

Priests from the Char Dham pilgrimage were enraged because they feared losing their land rights and their traditional part of the temple's revenue. As stated in the Act, ¡°All properties belonging to Char Dham Devasthanams (religious places) to which this Act applies, on the date of commencement of this Act¡­ stand transferred to the board. All assets vesting in the government, local authorities or persons aforesaid and all liabilities subsisting against such movement or persons on the said dates shall be devolved on the Char Dham and shall be maintained by the board.¡±

It also mentioned the ¡°Board may further acquire land in or around the vicinity of the religious devasthanam and other places as it would deem proper for its better development in favour of the Char Dham.¡± The priests stated that the government would expel them from their land and dharamshalas because they had already fallen under the Devasthanam board's jurisdiction.

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Pilgrimage priests had also claimed that the government, through the board, would encroach on their freedom to hold religious functions and activities. The Uttarakhand administration, on the other hand, had assured that people contesting the Devasthanam Board Act will continue to retain their land rights.

Was there any other provision?

Yes. The British-era Shri Badrinath-Shri Kedarnath Temples Act 1939 governed Badrinath and Kedarnath, as well as 45 affiliate temples, prior to the Char Dham Devasthanam Act 2019. A state government official served as the CEO of the independent Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC).

However, the BKTC is now dead. The Char Dham Devasthanam Board had taken over its personnel and office bearers. In the meantime, the Yamunotri and Gangotri shrines were overseen by temple committees led by tirth priests.

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