"Ram Temple Trust scandal exposes governance gaps in religious institution management"
Fiduciary Duty
legal obligation of a trustee to act solely in the interest of the trust's beneficiaries, not personal gain.
Culpable Negligence
conscious failure to exercise due care by a person with a legal duty to act, resulting in harm.
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust was constituted by a Union Government notification in February 2020, following the landmark Supreme Court verdict of November 2019 that resolved the decades-long Ayodhya title dispute and directed the government to hand over the disputed site for temple construction. The Trust was vested with the responsibility of overseeing construction and managing the temple complex, including the receipt and administration of public donations — a function that carries both fiduciary and public-interest obligations.
India has a complex and fragmented legal landscape governing religious endowments. At the state level, most Hindu temples of public character are regulated under state-specific legislation such as the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Acts (enacted by states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka). However, centrally constituted trusts like the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra operate under a different framework — primarily the Public Trusts Act principles and general fiduciary law — without a dedicated sectoral regulator. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) can audit bodies that receive substantial government grants, but its jurisdiction over privately constituted religious trusts receiving public donations is not automatic.
The governance of large religious institutions has historically been contentious in India. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), one of the wealthiest temple trusts in the world, operates under the Andhra Pradesh Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act and is subject to government-appointed boards, regular audits, and legislative oversight — a model often cited as a benchmark, albeit an imperfect one, for institutional accountability.
The core governance challenge with large religious trusts in India is the tension between their quasi-public character — they receive donations from millions of citizens and manage assets of enormous public significance — and their legal status as private or semi-private bodies, which limits the applicability of standard public-accountability mechanisms.
A trust's fiduciary duty requires its trustees to act solely in the interest of the trust's objects and beneficiaries. When trustees are senior civil servants or government nominees, an additional layer of public accountability attaches: they are expected to bring administrative rigour, not merely lend institutional prestige. The article's observation that the Trust included serving and retired senior officials — including officers at the level of Additional Chief Secretary and Additional Secretary — makes the governance failure particularly significant. …
With reference to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), consider the following statements:
1.It replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
2.Powers of criminal investigation under BNSS are vested exclusively in police officers.
3.An inquiry under BNSS can be conducted by any officer designated by the government.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Which of the following statements about the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India is/are correct?
1.The CAG derives its constitutional status from Article 148 of the Constitution.
2.The CAG has automatic audit jurisdiction over all religious trusts in India, regardless of government funding.
3.The CAG's jurisdiction over bodies receiving substantial government grants is governed by the CAG (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act, 1971.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
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