The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act, 1988

The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act, 1988, enacted by the Legislature of Jammu and Kashmir, is the statute establishing the legal authority of the shrine board that administers the Vaishno Devi pilgrimage site, setting out its governance structure and powers. Its strength is that it is the primary legal instrument itself, the actual text defining the shrine board's authority, the correct source for a claim about the site's legal and administrative status. Its limit is that a governance statute establishes legal authority rather than describing the pilgrimage's religious significance, its origin narrative or the devotional experience of the millions who visit each year, so a claim about the shrine's religious meaning or history needs a devotional or scholarly source on Vaishno Devi worship itself, not this administrative act, which addresses only how the site is legally managed.