On Tuesday, the Odisha government appointed ten members to the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee (SJTMC), including Girish Chandra Murmu, the former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. This appointment was made in accordance with the Shree Jagannath Temple Act, 1954 (Odisha Act 11 of 1955), as stated in a notification from the Law department. The administration of the Puri temple dedicated to Lord Jagannath falls under the jurisdiction of the State government’s Law department. The Gajapati Maharaja of Puri, Dibyasingha Deb, serves as the permanent chairman of the SJTMC, which is regarded as the highest authority of the 12th-century shrine.
The Chief Administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), an IAS officer, acts as the secretary of the SJTMC. In addition to Murmu, other nominees include Chartered Accountant A K Sabat and cultural researcher Mahesh Kumar Sahoo. The remaining members are Dr Siddheswar Mohapatra, representing ‘Mukti Mandap’, Krushna Chandra Sarmantray, Madhusudan Singhari, Jagannath Pujapanda, Ganesh Dasmohapatra, Ramnarayan Gochhikar—who all represent servitors—and Raghubir Das Maharaj of Balaramkot Matha, representing ‘mathas’ and other institutions. The BJP government in the state faced criticism for not reconstituting the SJTMC after the previous members’ terms ended in September 2024.
