2 weeks ago
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A plea has been filed successful the Supreme Court seeking absorption to the Centre and State governments to represent a judicial committee oregon an adept committee to reappraisal the wages and different benefits fixed to priests, sevadars and temple unit successful state-controlled temples.
The PIL filed by advocator Ashwini Upadhyay said that the writ petition seeks directions to the Centre and States to represent a judicial committee oregon an adept committee to reappraisal the remuneration and different benefits fixed to the priests and temple unit successful state-controlled temples.
"Petitioner besides seeks a declaration that priests and temple unit are ‘employee’ nether Section 2(k) of the Code connected Wages, 2019. Petitioner submits that erstwhile the State assumes the administrative, economical and fiscal power implicit temples, an employer-employee narration arises and denial of dignified wages to priests and temple unit violates the close to livelihood guaranteed nether Article 21," it said.
Mr. Upadhyay said that the origin of enactment accrued connected April 4, erstwhile helium went to Varanasi to be a nationalist programme and aft performing 'Rudrabhishek' successful the Kashi Vishwanath temple, which is controlled by the State, helium came to cognize that adjacent the minimum wages to unrecorded with dignity are not fixed to the priests and temple staff.
Systemic exploitation
"Recently, successful Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, priests and temple unit organised a large-scale protestation demanding the minimum wages. Priests and temple unit are not getting adjacent the minimum wage prescribed by the State for unskilled and semi-skilled workers. This is simply a systemic exploitation. State is acting arsenic a exemplary leader done the endowments section but violating the Minimum Wages Act and the Directive Principles of State Policy (Article 43)," it said.
The plea further said that the continued refusal to minimum wages with the 2026 inflation-adjusted outgo of surviving scale has forced the petitioner to question judicial involution to forestall the further marginalisation of priests and temple staff.
Upadhyay further said that the precarious quality of livelihood was starkly exposed connected February 7, 2025, erstwhile a Tamil Nadu section issued a circular astatine the 'Dhandayuthapani Swami Temple' successful Madurai, strictly prohibiting priests from accepting 'Dakshina' successful 'aarti plates'.
"It is indispensable to authorities that priests successful specified temples often person nary ceremonial wage from the State and trust wholly connected 'Dakshina'; the State's administrative bid straight threatened them with starvation. Although withdrawn owed to nationalist outrage, the incidental highlights the State’s arbitrary powerfulness implicit the endurance of the priests. This is besides a bitter information that States are controlling lakhs of temples but not a azygous mosque oregon church," the PIL claimed.
The petition, alternatively, sought absorption to the Centre and States to instrumentality due steps for the payment of priests, sevadars and different temple unit successful the tone of the Allahabad High Court's earlier judgments.
