PIL in SC for reviewing wages of priests, sevadars and temple staff in govt.-controlled temples

An application has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Central and State governments to constitute a judicial commission or an expert committee to review salaries and other benefits given to priests, sevadars and temple staff in state-controlled temples.

The PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay said the writ petition seeks directions to the Center and States to constitute a judicial commission or an expert committee to review the pay and other benefits given to priests and temple staff in state-controlled temples.

“The plaintiff also seeks a declaration that priests and temple staff are ’employees’ under Section 2(k) of the Wages Act, 2019. The plaintiff alleges that an employer-employee relationship arises when the State assumes administrative, economic and financial control over temples and that failure to provide dignified wages to priests and temple staff violates the right to livelihood guaranteed under Article 21.”

Mr. Upadhyay said the cause of action accrued when he went to Varanasi on April 4 to attend a public program and after performing ‘Rudrabhishek’ at the State-controlled Kashi Vishwanath temple, he came to know that the priests and temple staff were not being paid even the minimum wages required for a dignified life.

systemic exploitation

“Recently in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, priests and temple staff staged a large-scale protest demanding minimum wage. Priests and temple staff are not even receiving the minimum wage fixed by the State for unskilled and semi-skilled workers. This is systematic exploitation. The State is behaving as a model employer through its endowment department but is violating the Minimum Wage Act and State Policy Directive Principles (Article 43),” the statement said.

The plea further stated that the denial of minimum wages in the 2026 inflation-adjusted cost of living index forces the petitioner to seek judicial intervention to prevent further marginalization of priests and temple staff.

Upadhyay further said that the precarious nature of livelihoods came into sharp relief on February 7, 2025, when the Tamil Nadu department issued a circular strictly prohibiting priests from accepting ‘Dakshina’ on ‘aarti plates’ at the ‘Dhandayuthapani Swami Temple’ in Madurai.

“It is worth noting that priests in such temples generally do not receive official salary from the State and rely entirely on ‘Dakshina’; the State’s administrative set-up directly threatened them with starvation. Although it was withdrawn due to public outrage, the incident reveals the arbitrary power of the State over the survival of the priests. This is also a bitter truth that the States control not a single mosque or church but lakhs of temples,” the PIL said.

In the alternative, the petition sought to direct the Center and the States to take appropriate steps for the welfare of priests, sevadars and other temple staff in the spirit of previous orders of the Allahabad High Court.