Temple offerings, whether cash, gold, or kind, are the absolute and inalienable property of the deity as a juristic person; neither the state government nor the Devaswom Boards have proprietary rights – only managerial/trustee duties.
Diverting hundi collections for secular purposes, however noble (rescue of co-operative banks, drought relief, or education), constitutes breach of trust, misappropriation, and violates Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution that guarantee religious denominations the right to manage their own affairs in matters of religion.
The ruling restores and reinforces the century-old “deity as owner” doctrine first crystallised in 1956 and repeatedly upheld thereafter; any “surplus” in temple accounts can only ever be spent on the deity’s seva, kainkaryam, and allied religious-charitable objects – never treated as government revenue.
You Cannot Rob God To Pay The Banker: Supreme Court
Supreme Court strikes down Kerala’s plan to siphon ₹150 crore from temple hundis to rescue sinking co-operative banks
The Supreme Court of India has categorically declared that money voluntarily offered by millions of devotees in temple hundis belongs irrevocably to the deity and cannot be appropriated by the state government for any purpose outside the temple’s religious and charitable objects – not even to salvage public-sector banks on the verge of collapse.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing a clutch of public-interest and devotee-led petitions that challenged the Kerala Government’s controversial decision taken in early 2025 to divert ₹100 crore from the Guruvayur Devaswom Managing Committee’s surplus funds and another ₹50 crore collectively from the Travancore Devaswom Board, Cochin Devaswom Board, and Koodalmanikyam Devaswom Board. The stated objective was to inject liquidity into the crisis-hit Kerala State Co-operative Bank and 14 district co-operative banks that were reeling under bad loans and withdrawal pressure.
Describing the move as “constitutionally blasphemous and legally untenable”, the Court quashed the Government Order dated 12 February 2025 and all related resolutions of the Devaswom Boards passed under alleged state pressure.
Delivering the 68-page verdict, Justice Surya Kant observed: “When a devotee drops a coin or a hundred-rupee note into the hundiyal with faith that it will reach Sri Krishna or Lord Ayyappa, that money instantly ceases to be secular currency. It becomes the personal property of the deity – a juristic entity recognised by Indian law for over a century. The state, even in its most desperate fiscal hour, has no dominion over it.”
The Court rejected Kerala’s argument that “surplus” temple funds could be treated as public money available for larger societal good. “There is no concept of ‘surplus’ in a religious endowment once basic maintenance and traditional expenditures are met,” the judgment noted. “Any balance must be used only for purposes connected with the worship, festivals, annadanam, gosala, veda pathashala, or infrastructure of that very temple or sister temples of the same deity – never for roads, hospitals, or bailing out banks.”