State Hindu Religious society
There shall be a society in each state and union territory of Hindus for the management of the temples as under.
Clause 1 - Hindu Definition:
Hindu for the limited purpose of participating in the temple management means a person satisfying one or more of the following criteria:
- Actively practising Sanatana Dharma and not practicing any other religion at any time and born to practicing Hindu parents
- In the case of an orphan, having been raised as a Hindu is actively practicing Sanatana Dharma and not following any other religion at any time
- A person born in any tribal community shall be treated as a person born in a Hindu community when he/she was confirmed actively practicing the Hindu religion. He/should not be following any other religion at any time
- If the person has been directly or indirectly practicing any other religion at any point of time but has converted to Sanatana Dharma officially, he/she should be an actively practising Hindu for at least ten years and should believe in temple worship for at least ten years
For all of the above, they should have believed in temple worship for at least ten years. Affidavits must be submitted declaring compliance with the above conditions and that they have not believed in any other religion for at least ten years
Anyone who celebrates non-Hindu religious festivals, wishes on these festivals, believes all religions are the same shall not be defined as Hindu for this purpose.
Clause 2 – Voting Members of the society:
Eligibility:
- Shall be Hindu.
- Shall be citizens of India,
- Shall be an actual resident of the respective state.
- He/she can be of any caste, varna or gender.
- At least 18 years of age.
Clause 3 - Membership donation:
All members will make a minimum annual personal membership donation to at least one Temple. The same shall be the value of 0.1 grams of gold in cash on the respective payment date. A person can be a member of any number of temples. A person can also donate any amount of money to any temple.
Clause 4 - Eligibility to vote in the elections of Managing Committee:
In addition to criteria in Section 2, a person also needs to be a member of at least ten temple societies for at least three years preceding to be eligible to vote in the state-society elections
Clause 5 - Non-voting Members:
A person who does not satisfy Section 1 criteria for being Hindu can be a non-voting member as long as they are a currently practicing Hindu and do not believe in any other religion
- Can be of any caste, varna or gender
- Can be a citizen of Bharat or any other country.
- Can be resident of Bharat or any other country.
- Non-Residents or citizens of any other country can be members without voting rights.
Clause 6 - Management Committee of the Society:
- A committee of nine persons with one-third of persons elected for a three-year term each year.
Clause 7 – Eligibility to be a Member of Management Committee:
- Shall be ordinary Members of the society and be eligible to vote in the State Committee elections.
- The minimum eligibility age shall be 55, and the maximum shall be 65 as of the elections' date.
- Shall not have contested or nominated for any public office, i.e. for any State legislature or parliament, held any ministerial position, contested or assigned to any local government. If this condition is not satisfied, they shall be ineligible for life and their immediate family numbers.
- Shall not have held any position in any political party recognised by the Election Commission of India.
- No individual shall serve more than two terms. Furthermore, no close relative (Class 1 legal heir as per Hindu law) of a person once served shall be ineligible to serve in Committee again for 30 years from completing the term of such person.
- The Hindu community born in, or in case of females married into, shall be that person's community.
- As much as possible, each Hindu community/caste in a state shall be given representation in the Committee.
- Membership shall be a full-time service and without any remuneration. No member shall practice any other profession service while being in the Committee. He/she shall not be any director of any company, partner in any firm, or hold any job. No member shall receive any remuneration or salary.
- No person who is ever convicted for an offence that is punishable for more than two years and of any offence of moral turpitude shall be eligible to be in the Management Committee.
- Any person who is involved in any profession or service that is considered immoral or/and may not be considered traditionally appropriate for association with the temples shall also be not eligible to be a member.
Clause 8 - Elections for the Management Committee:
Elections for the Committee shall be conducted once every two years, in which half of the members will be elected.
Political parties will not be allowed to back any candidates or play any role in the election.
Voting shall be done online, and it shall be ensured that a system of strict identity verification and voting integrity is in place.
Elections shall be held during the first week of the traditional Saka year.
In case of any vacancy in the Management Committee, the elections shall be held within 30 days of such vacancy. The elected person shall continue for the remainder of the six-year term only.
Clause 9 - Restrictions on powers of Management Committee:
- The Management Committee shall not have any power whatsoever on the religious side, day to day functions, appointments of purohits, staff in temples, salaries, use of funds of the temples. These functions shall be looked after by the Committee of Hindu Dharmacharyas as explained in Section 11.
The Management Committee shall not have any power to sell,
- Any immovable assets of the Temple except in exceptional cases,
- Any religious and/or traditional jewellery or gifted to the Temple by any devotee.
- Any temple animals etc.,
- Any other assets, things and items of religious, cultural and other traditional significance.
Clause 10 – Responsibility and powers of the Management Committee:
- To generate income for temple management and exclusively Hindu causes, all the immovable assets and cash, bonds, debentures, securities, shares, investments, etc., are owned by the temples.
- To appoint any Manager or custodian to the said assets.
- To manage and/or lease said assets.
- To manage, invest or utilise the said assets of the temples,
- To receive and keep the membership donation received in respect of each of the temples, use, manage and invest any surplus. Surplus is defined as funds left after the funds are allocated for temple management as prescribed in the waterfall structure below
Clause 11 – Duties of the Management Committee:
The Committee shall have the power to appoint two dharmaadhikaris as detailed herein each year for a five-year term.
In respect of the funds and accounting
- Maintain all accounts funds in the Public Sector banks,
- Transparently conduct all transactions,
- Conduct both concurrent and yearly audits of the accounts and make the report public.
- Maintain a transparent funds investment policy,'
- Take steps to mitigate investment and liquidity risks,
- Ensure CAG guidelines are met
In respect of the immovable properties,
- Shall maintain a record of all the immovable assets of the Temples of the state either located within the state or outside,
- Take possession of the said immovable properties,
- Lease the same as provided herein,
- In case of agricultural land or residential houses or shall not lease the same to anyone other than a Hindu as defined herein,
- Shall not lease for more than three years,
- Shall not lease unless there is a bank guarantee for lease payment for the entire lease period.
- In the case of commercial property, the lease period shall not be more than five years.
- All leases shall be given on the basis of e-tendering.
- All the lease agreements shall be provided for the maintenance of the property in proper condition.
- The leaseholder shall bear the entire cost of the lease.
- Regarding the vacant residential or commercial land, the same can be developed by making suitable constructions under-invest. Share model wherein the builder shall share 50% of the property's total lease rentals for ten years and hand over the property to the Management Committee in full. In such cases, the Management Committee and not the builder shall have the sole right to conduct e-tendering of the lease offers.
The Management Committee can accept donations in cash from the public to carry out the following purposes:
- To make up for any revenue deficit of any temples in the state.
- To conduct any samskaras like Namakaranam, Upanayanam, Marriage etc., of any poor Hindus in the state.
- To train purohits for performing any religious functions for Hindus at large.
The funds shall be collected under different heads. Any surplus funds shall be invested with clearing mitigation for investment and liquidity risks.
Clause 12 - Use of Funds generated from temple assets:
The Committee of Hindu Dharmacharyas will administer the funds generated by the management committee. The application of the funds or income of the temples shall be made on the respective temples as per the following waterfall mechanism:
- To meet regular, day-to-day, and current expenditure of the respective individual Temple includes payment of the salaries, pensions etc., of the Pujaris and other persons serving the Temple in a strictly religious capacity.
- To meet the regular upkeeping of the Temple.
- To conduct any traditional festivals and other functions of the Temple,
- To perform any repairs to the Temple,
To build or provide required facilities to the devotees for a reasonable charge,
- To maintain a reserve that shall not be more than two years of the total expenditure presiding year under items 1 to 3.
- Any surplus remaining after the reserve as above shall be utilised for any nearest located revenue deficit Temples of the same Hindu deity of the same Hindu sampradaya or some other Hindu sampradaya situated in the respective state to meet their respective expenditure under heads 1 to 3 above.
- The other surplus shall be donated to any deity of any other Hindu sampradaya located in the respective state to meet their respective expenditure under heads 1 to 3 above.
- Further surplus funds shall be donated to any Schools located in the respective state and teaching Vedas.
The management Committee shall create a committee of Hindu Dharmacharyas as under,
The persons with all the eligibilities as stated herein under can only be appointed as Dharmacharyas
- Persons who have taken Sanyasashrama.
- Can be male or female if taking sanyasashrama is traditionally allowed for females in any sampradaya.
- Persons with in depth expertise and commitment to Vedas, Agamas, Shastras, Temple traditions etc.
- Exclusively Hindu from birth and shall not have followed or supported any other religion at any point in time.
- Shall belong to the religious sampradayas, which support Murti Pooja and Temples.
- Shall be at least 50 years old and not more than 55 years at their appointment.
The term of appointment shall be for five years with two terms maximum for any person. As the Dharmacharyas are Sanyasis, there will be no remuneration. The Managing Committee shall arrange all the requirements for their day to day requirements etc.
Clause 14 -
- Ensure that the day-to-day function of temple worship is carried out in all temples as per the customs and traditions of the respective Temple.
- Shall ensure that in the temples wherein there is a Pujari or a Pundit performing puja etc., as a hereditary as per the custom or tradition of the respective Temple, such person is not removed except in exceptional cases of serious misconduct. However, even in such cases, they shall ensure the replacement shall be from the same family as much as practically possible. In case no such person is available, appoint any other suitable person
- In the case of temples maintained by non-Brahmin communities, they shall ensure that the same shall be continued and shall not be interfered with in any manner.
- Furthermore, they shall ensure that all customs and traditions of such temples shall be held without any change.
- In the case of temples traditionally managed by females, transgender etc., they shall ensure that the same shall continue.
- They shall ensure any custom dictating or restricting entry into the Temple or any worshipping shall continue except no one shall be refused entry or chance of worship due to his/her caste or community of Hindus.
- They shall ensure any other traditional restrictions on the access of males and females, if any, shall continue.
- They shall ensure that any other customs like dress code, etc., continue and followed by all devotees.
- Traditions by which the entry into the Temple's central part wherein the Murty is residing shall continue is restricted only to the Pujari, and others like that shall continue.
Clause 16- Non-religious, administrative staff:
As much as possible administrative and non-religious work of any temple shall be done by volunteers. However, in case of requirement, the Committee can recruit any Hindu to carry out such work. The remuneration of the said person shall not be more than 50% of the lowest salary of any pujari/purohit of the respective Temple.
Clause 15 -Minimum salary of the Pujari and purohits working in any temple:
Any pujari or purohit working in any temple shall be paid the same salary and provided with other facilities like pension, health, and other benefits of a senior High School teacher of the respective state government.
Clause 17 - Restriction of engagement of services etc.:
The Management Committee and Committee of Dharmacharyas shall not engage in services, purchase any goods, items, lease any immovable property, employ either temporarily or permanently, or provide any business, commercial or trade opportunity to anyone who is not a Hindu as defined herein, to any business entity which is not wholly-owned by Hindus as described herein. This restriction does not apply to Public Sector entities.
Only Public Sector Banks or companies wholly owned or owned more than 51% shall be engaged for advisory services, fund management services, advice on investment risk, etc.
Clause 18 – Ceasing to be Hindu for purposes of this act
Anyone who is not in compliance with any provision of Section 1 shall cease to qualify as Hindu and will no longer be a voting member or be eligible to be on the Management Committee and Committee of Dharmacharyas. He/she will also not be qualified to be a Pundit for purposes of Section 12. Such a person must be immediately removed from the committees and cease to be employed as a Pundits.
Clause 19 – Restrictions on use of temple assets or funds
No temple or Temple property resources may be used to celebrate any non-Hindu religious festival, non-Hindu uses of any type, other religious worship, preaching, information of any kind.
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