The Nathdwara Temple (Amendment) Act, 2023

(1) This Act may be called the Nathdwara Temple (Amendment) Act, 2023. (2) It shall come into force at once.

In clause (viii) of section 2 of the Nathdwara Temple Act, 1959 (Act No. 13 of 1959), hereinafter referred to as the principal Act, for the existing expression “Shri Navnitpriyaji and Shri Madan Mohanlalji”, the expression “Shri Navnitpriyaji, Shri Madan Mohanlalji and Mukharvind located at Jatipura in the State of Uttar Pradesh including Baithakji situated at various places all over India, under the control of the Board” shall be substituted.

In section 5 of the principal Act,- (a) in clause (i) of sub-section (1), - (i) after the existing expression “the President,” and before the existing the expression “the Collector”, the expression “the eldest son of Goswami,” shall be inserted; (ii) for the existing punctuation mark “;” appearing at the end, the punctuation mark “:” shall be substituted and after clause (i) so amended, the following proviso shall be added, namely:- “Provided that the eleven other members shall be appointed by the State Government in consultation with Goswami. The Board shall forward names to the State Government equivalent to three times the number of vacancies and out of that the State Government shall appoint eleven members;”; (b) for the existing clause (iii), the following shall be substituted, namely:- “(iii) The State Government shall, in consultation with the President of the Board, nominate a Vice President of the Board from amongst the members of the Board;” and (c) after clause (iii) so substituted, the following new clause shall be added, namely:- “(iv) The eldest son of Goswami shall be the ex-officio member of the Board, if he is not otherwise disqualified and is willing to serve as such. This shall be in addition to the eleven other members nominated by the State Government under clause (i).”

In section 9 of the principal Act,- (a) in sub-section (1), after the existing expression “shall be filled up” and before the existing expression “by the State Government”, the expression “,in consultation with President,” shall be inserted; (b) for the existing sub-section (2), the following shall be substituted, namely:- “(2) A casual vacancy in the office of President shall be filled up by the State Government by way of nomination of eldest son of the President: Provided that where the eldest son is minor, the wife of the President and in the event of the wife being not alive eldest major daughter of the President shall be appointed as President of the Board who shall hold the office of the President till the eldest son of the President attains majority. The eldest son, on attaining the majority, shall be appointed as the President of the Board: Provided further that where the President does not have any son, then brother of the President shall be the President. In the absence of a brother, the wife of the President and in the event the wife is not alive then eldest major daughter shall be appointed as temporary President. In such contingency the wife or the eldest daughter of the President, as the case may be, shall have to select a male, to be appointed as President of the Board, from Tilkayat Lineage, in the absence of which, from Vallabh-Kul Lineage within three months of becoming temporary President.”.

In sub-section (3) of section 10 of the principal Act,- (a) for the existing punctuation mark “.” appearing at the end, the punctuation mark “:” shall be substituted; and (b) after sub-section (3) so amended, the following proviso shall be added, namely:- “Provided that the person so appointed by the State Government shall be from Tilkayat Lineage and the State Government shall constitute the Board within a period of three months from the date of such dissolution.”.

In sub-section (2) of section 17 of the principal Act,- (a) for the existing punctuation mark “.” appearing at the end, the punctuation mark “:” shall be substituted; and (b) after sub-section (2) so amended, the following proviso shall be added, namely:- “Provided that where the Board intends to lease its land for the purpose of setting up a solar power plant or any other power plant for generation of green energy. Such lease, with the previous sanction of the State Government shall be granted as per provisions of the Rajasthan Land Revenue (Allotment of land for setting up of power based on renewable energy sources) Rules, 2007.”.

For the existing section 18A of the principal Act, the following shall be substituted, namely:- "18A. Constitution of Executive Committee and other Committees.- (1) For the efficient and proper performance of the day to day secular duties relating to the temple the State Government shall constitute an Executive Committee consisting of the President, Vice President and one other member to be nominated by State Government. (2) The President shall be the Chairman of the Executive Committee. (3) Subject to the general superintendence of the Board, the Executive Committee shall control the day to day secular affairs relating to the temple and shall, for this purpose issue general or special directions to the Chief Executive Officer. (4) The Board may constitute such other committees for carrying out day to day affairs, as may be specified by the Board in its resolution. It shall be open for the Board to authorize the President to constitute the committee. Each committee so constituted shall consist of three members out of which two shall be the members of the Board and one shall be co-opted by the President of the Board.".

After the existing sub-section (5) of section 19 of the principal Act, the following new sub-section (6) shall be added, namely:- "(6) The tenure of Chief Executive Officer may ordinarily be of three years. The State Government in consultation with the President of the Board may extend the tenure of Chief Executive Officer: Provided that where the Board passes a resolution for removal of Chief Executive Officer before the expiry of three years, the State Government shall appoint another person as Chief Executive Officer in accordance with sub-section (1).".