Karnataka High Court orders tech-driven overhaul to manage finance and assets of temples
The Karnataka High Court has ordered the implementation of a centralized electronic financial management system for all state-controlled temples. This mandate aims to prevent financial misappropriation by requiring unique QR-coded receipts and tamper-evident audit logs.
Why it matters
It establishes a precedent for digitizing religious institutional governance to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of public trust funds.
Observing that “temple funds are not ordinary funds and that they are trust property, gathered from the faith of devotees and held for the deity”, the High Court of Karnataka has issued a series of directions aimed at bringing transparency and preventing financial mismanagement in all temples controlled by the Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments (HRI&CE) Department.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj issued the directions recently, while upholding an order passed in October 2020 by the executive officer of the Sri Durgaparameshwari temple in Brahmavar taluk of Udupi district in dismissing an employee of the temple for misappropriating ₹8,750.
The court also found no fault in an order passed in 2024 by the Commissioner for the Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments in affirming the dismissal.
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