'Badri Vishal' deity sole owner of Badrinath temple offerings, rules Uttarakhand court

DEHRADUN: Badri Vishal, the deity of the Badrinath temple, “exclusively holds the rights to all offerings, gifts, and donations made by devotees”, a court in Chamoli ruled while hearing a case that arose from a dispute involving claims from priests’ outfit Nepali Lal Mohariya Panda Samaj (NLMPS) over donations received at the Nepali Ashram.
The verdict said, “Solely, Badri Vishal possesses the absolute prerogative over all such articles...Given that the idol in the mandir is a legal entity, the mandir retains exclusive authority over the offerings, gifts, and donations received from worshippers and no other individual can assert entitlement over it.”
The litigation began when two brothers, Hari Prasad Dimari and Ballabh Prasad, from NLMPS, claimed their right to donations received by the Nepali Ashram in 2017, asserting it as a long-standing tradition.In 2018, the Dimari brothers filed a suit against NLMPS and the Nepali Ashram, arguing that their share from lakhs in donations received from Nepali devotees were being withheld.
The petitioners argued that their ancestors had always divided the offerings among all the Dimaris of their lineage. However, the court affirmed that only the Badrinath temple holds the rights to the offerings and donations from pilgrims.