The Supreme Court has ordered a Government-appointed administrator, Nazim to ensure that the donation received at the holy shrine of Ajmer Sharif is distributed among the Durgah Committee, Khadims and Dewans, who are dependent on the income from the shrine for their survival.
The apex court upheld a decision of the Rajasthan High Court last year that put the Nazim in-charge of all inflows to the shrine by way of donations in cash and kind. As per the division of wealth, the Nazim had to ensure that all gold, silver vessels, kabarposh, would belong to the Durgah Committee. However, cash offerings would be divided between Khadims (clerics who perform rituals) and Dewans (descendants of Sufi Moinuddin Chisti). Approving the scheme proposed by the HC, the SC bench of Justices KS Radhakrishnan and Vikramajit Sen felt that the scheme served the larger public interest as millions visit it from across the world.
The Khadims — who occupy a prime place in the shrine — objected to the scheme as they used to benefit previously by receiving offering directly from pilgrims. Following the HC verdict, any articles they received from pilgrims would now have to be deposited with the office of Nazim. They even argued that pilgrims dropped their donations into the donation boxes. While offerings in boxes — kept outside the dome of the shrine — was reserved exclusively for Khadims by the HC, they got irked by the idea of sharing equal portion with Dewans of the large chunk of donations that fell into the donation boxes kept inside the shrine. The bench reasoned, “Normally, a pilgrim who makes an offering or makes any donation, expects the same to go to the holy shrine and its development and maintenance, not for the individual benefit of either the Khadim or Dewan.”
For the benefit of pilgrims, the scheme required the Nazim to put up huge display boards at all vital points of the shrine announcing that all cash donations for the shrine are meant to be dropped in the donation boxes while articles need to be handed over at Nazim’s office. The court held that any amount given by pilgrims would be considered as a token of satisfaction for the prayers and such a scheme would ensure proper accounting and transparency in the functioning of Durgah.