Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the formation of a trust to construct a temple in Ayodhya, in compliance of the Supreme Court’s November 9 order in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case. The trust will be headed by Supreme Court lawyer Keshav Parasaran who represented Hindus in the case.

“On the basis of the SC direction, my Government has today given approval to the proposal for creation of 'Shri Ram Janma Bhoomi Tirtha Kshetra' trust. The Trust will be free to take all decisions regarding the creation of a magnificent RamTemple in Ayodhya”, the PM informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The 15-member list includes:

Keshav Parasaran

Senior Supreme Court lawyer and former Attorney General of India K Parasaran is named as the first trustee of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. The 92-year-old lawyer successfully fought the Ayodhya land dispute case representing Hindus and will also host the trust’s registered office at his R-20, Greater Kailash Part-1 residence in New Delhi.

Born in Tamil Nadu’s Srirangam in 1927, Parasaran started his practice before the Supreme Court in 1958. During the Emergency, he was Advocate General of Tamil Nadu and in 1980 was appointed Solicitor General of India. He served as the Attorney General of India from 1983 to 1989.

Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Vasudevanand Saraswatiji Maharaj (Prayagraj)

Shankaracharya of astrology bench located at Badrinath. However, there was a dispute over making him Shankaracharya. Shankaracharya Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati of Dwarka bench filed a case in the High Court regarding the title of Shankaracharya of Jyotish Math.

Jagadguru Madhwacharya Swami Vishwa Prasannathirthaji Maharaj

The Hindu spiritual leader is the 33rd Peethadheeshwar of Pejawar Math located in Udupi, Karnataka and assumed the position after the death of his predecessor, Peetadheshwar Swami Vishweshtirth of Pejawar Math, in December 2019.

Yugapurusha Paramanand Ji Maharaj

Head of Akhand Ashram Haridwar and a celebrated author of more than 150 books on Vedanta, Parmanand addressed the summit of spiritual leaders at the United Nations in the year 2000.

Swami Govind Dev Giri Ji Maharaj

Govind Dev Giri was born in 1950 in Ahmed Nagar, Maharashtra and preaches various Hindu religious texts such as Ramayana, Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata, and others.

Vimalendra Mohan Pratap Mishra

A descendant of Ayodhya royal family, Vimalendra Mohan Mishra fought the Lok Sabha election on BSP ticket in 2009 and lost and hasn’t fought any election after that.

Dr. Anil Mishra

Originally a resident of Ambedkar Nagar, Anil is a famous homeopathy doctor of Ayodhya. He is the registrar of the Homeopathy Medicine Board. Mishra took part in the Ram Mandir movement in 1992 along with former MP Vinay Katiyar.

Kameshwar Chaupal, Patna (SC Member)

The dalit member in the trust, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has given Chaupal the status of first Karsevak as he had laid the first brick of foundation stone in the Ram temple in 1989. He unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections in 1991 against Ram Vilas Paswan.

Mahant Dinendra Das

Head of Ayodhya meeting of Nirmohi Akhara of Ayodhya. He will not have the right to vote in trust meetings.