Nainital: Uttarakhand high court (HC) on Wednesday recommended the state government “to frame a legislation on the lines of the ‘Himachal Pradesh Hindu Public Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act, 1984’ so as to take over the management of all prominent temples across Uttarakhand.”The recommendation made by a division bench of justices Lok Pal Singh and Rajiv Sharma, if accepted by the state government, is expected to bring several temples visited by lakhs of devotees in the Himalayan state such as the four Char Dham shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri — which are currently administered by managing committees — directly under the control of the state government.The Act which is in place in Himachal for the past 35 years provisions for the appointment of officials of the rank of commissioner to oversee the administration of Hindu public religious institutions and charitable endowments in the state. The purpose of the legislation is to ensure that the income nad funds generated by the religious institutions is being utilized for the purposes for which they were founded.The court’s recommendation came while hearing a public interest litigation filed by a petitioner in 2015 requesting the management of funds collected by events in The Flats grounds in Nainital by the state government.While disposing the petition, the court ordered the district administration, Nainital district and Nainital Municipal Corporation to organise the annual fair held at The Flats grounds adjacent to Naina Devi temple in Nainital — and deposit the revenue generated from shops and the stalls allocations to the state government.

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