The National Hindu Temples Steering Committee has adopted a new four-colour classification system aimed at helping Hindu temple across the country, move towards legal recognition and proper land documentation.
The initiative, agreed upon during the committee meeting which was held at the Malaysia Hindu Sangam headquarters in Petaling Jaya, seeks to address the longstanding issue of unregistered Hindu temples and offer practical pathways to regularisation rather than imposing arbitrary registration.
Four-Colour Classification
Under the new framework, temples will be categorised by documentation and land status:
- Green – Temples with complete and valid documentation (Including gazette status and proper land titles)
- Yellow – Temples that occupy land (officially designated non-Islamic house of worship land, private land or their own land) but have not yet obtained official gazetted status or proper land titles. Temples under this category will receive support in applying formal gazette status and land title.
- Orange – Temples on government, agency or private land that already have valid approval from landowners
- Red – Temples without any documentation, approvals from landowners. For these cases, temple committee will provide potential solutions including land purchase or even merging with existing registered temples where practical.
Committee Role and Next Steps
The National Hindu Temple Steering Committee emphasised that it is not mandated to enforce arbitrary registration. Instead, the committee’s role is to guide temples towards the most appropriate legal pathways based on their circumstances. The committee also has announced that plans to have a meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as well as ministers who are responsible for national unity, housing and local governmnt to coordinate support.
The committee has stated that about 450 temples have submitted responses to a nationwide survey their status of land matters and the committee is urging more temples to complete the form so that regularisation steps can proceed in a structured way.
