# Supreme Court orders every rupee of Banke Bihari donations to temple treasury 2026-08-25T23:36:04+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that every donation at Vrindavan's Banke Bihari temple must go into official donation boxes or the temple's online account, after a court-appointed committee reported that sevayats (priests) were pocketing offerings. Senior advocate Maninder Singh told a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant that sevayats were covering donation boxes with flowers and collecting cash directly from devotees into polythene bags. Singh also alleged that QR codes for online donations had been destroyed or hidden. Brushing aside arguments that a court decree allowed sevayats to keep a share, the bench warned that any impediment to transparent donations would be 'viewed very seriously'. Senior advocate Shyam Divan, representing the sevayats, countered that the temple management committee itself was misusing funds to buy properties. The Court gave all parties one week to file objections to the committee's report. The matter is part of ongoing litigation over a 2025 Uttar Pradesh ordinance that seeks to replace the temple's current management with a state-controlled trust. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Both Times of India and Rediff report the same Court order identically: every donation must go to the temple treasury. Rediff adds context the ToI omits, photographs of sevayats blocking donation boxes, QR codes being destroyed, and the wider dispute over the Uttar Pradesh ordinance replacing the temple trust. ToI leads with the Court's rebuke, Rediff leads with the word 'every penny' from the bench. The real friction is between two sets of allegations: sevayats siphoning funds versus the management committee misusing temple money to buy property. The Court has given both sides one week to file objections. The next hearing will test whether either allegation holds. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - timesofindia.indiatimes.com (neutral report) Leads with the Court's strong exception and the sevayats blocking donation boxes, omitting QR code destruction and ordinance context. - rediff.com (neutral report) Adds photographs of fund siphoning, destroyed QR codes, and pending ordinance case, framing the directive as a 'significant directive' against systemic diversion. This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-08-26T00:46:39+00:00. Tags: Banke Bihari Temple, CJI, sevayats, Supreme Court of India, Vrindavan Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-all-banke-bihari-donations-must-go-to-deity/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-all-banke-bihari-donations-must-go-to-deity/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/