HC gives govt 3 months to tally Jagannath Temple treasure with 1978 inventory

THe Orissa heights margaret court has ordered the tell regime to chalk up the inventory of gold and precious stones belonging to the Jagannath Temple within three months. The court also ordered the state government to table the 2018 inquiry report into the “mysterious disappearance” of the keys to the temple’s inner treasury, known as the Ratna Bhandar, in the state assembly during the upcoming Budget session.“There cannot be any dormant exercise in this regard and it is an ordained duty of the State to take prompt action,” a bench of chief justice Harish Tandon and justice Murahari Sri Raman said in order on January 27 in a public interest litigation.The order, uploaded to the high court’s website on Thursday, stated that the State cannot afford complacency regarding the sacred treasures of one of India’s holiest shrines.The Ratna Bhandar, located near the sanctum sanctorum, is arguably the temple’s most precious property and houses several priceless pieces of jewellery, including diamonds, gold, and silver.During the last inventory of the Ratna Bhandar between May 13 and July 23 in 1978, 454 gold articles with a net weight of 128.380 kg and 293 silver articles weighing 221.530 kg were found in both the chambers of the treasury.In July 2024, the jewellery articles were removed from the Ratna Bhandar for audit and treasury repairs.The previous Naveen Patnaik government appointed former Orissa High Court judge Raghubir Das to investigate the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the keys to the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ in June 2018. The commission submitted the report to the Odisha government in November 2018, but the state government has not tabled it in the state Assembly.The petition sought an inventory of ornaments, valuables and precious stones owned by the presiding deity of the Jagannath Temple in Puri since time immemorial, compliance with the Commissions of Inquiry Act which requires probe reports to be tabled in the legislature, and the repair and maintenance of the Ratna Bhandar.The court said the last inventory conducted in 1978 would serve as the foundational reference document.The newly constituted committee’s current inventory must be reconciled with the 1978 record to confirm that all items documented at the time remain accounted for, the bench saidThe state government sought additional time for the exercise but the request was declined by the court. “We hasten to add that no complacency can be shown by the State Government in relation to the process of the inventory and the report submitted by the Committee and we trust and hope that the State shall show alacrity in this regard,” the bench said.