NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition seeking formation of a judicial panel or expert committee to review wages and other benefits given to priests, ‘sevdars’ and temple staff in state-controlled temples.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said it could not entertain the petition under Article 32 of the Constitution and the aggrieved persons could directly approach the court.
The Supreme Court asked the petitioner’s counsel Ashwini Upadhyay not to interfere in the affairs of the priests as he may not be aware of the earnings of the priests and ‘sevadars’ of the temples.
Upadhyay said there were judgments by the Allahabad High Court and other high courts calling for a review of the wages of priests of state-controlled temples to enable them to live a decent life.
The bench refused to entertain the petition and allowed Upadhyay to withdraw the petition freely to avail the remedies available under the law.
The petition, filed through advocate Ashwani Dubey, seeks directions to the Center and states to constitute a bench or expert committee to review wages and other benefits given to priests and temple staff in state-controlled temples.
“The petitioner also seeks a declaration that priests and temple employees are employees under Section 2 of the Wages Act, 2019. The petitioner submits that once the state assumes administrative, economic and financial control over temples, an employer-employee relationship arises and depriving priests and temple employees of decent wages violates the right to earn a living guaranteed under Article 21.”
Upadhyay said the cause of action dates back to April 4, when he went to Varanasi to attend a public program and after performing ‘Rudrabhishek’ at the state-controlled Kashi Vishwanath Temple, he learned that even the minimum wage to live with dignity was not being given to the priests and temple staff.
“Recently, in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, priests and temple staff staged a large-scale protest demanding minimum wages. The priests and temple staff do not even get the minimum wages fixed by the state for unskilled and semi-skilled workers. This is systematic exploitation. The state is behaving like a model employer by managing endowments, but it is violating the Minimum Wages Act and the State Policy Directive Principles.”
The petition also said that the continued refusal to meet the minimum wage with the inflation-adjusted cost of living index for 2026 has forced the petitioner to seek judicial intervention to prevent further “marginalization” of the priests and temple staff.
Upadhyay also said that the precarious nature of livelihood was blatantly exposed on February 7, 2025, when the Tamil Nadu administration issued a circular at the Dandayuthapani Swamy Temple in Madurai, strictly prohibiting priests from accepting ‘dakshina’ in ‘aarti’ dishes.
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