The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked former Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam to reconsider his decision to withdraw as amicus curiae from the Padmanabha Swamy temple case considering the volume of work done by him in regard to improving the administration and management of the century old temple in Kerala.
Subramanium had written a letter to the Supreme Court on August 4 to be discontinued from appearing as amicus curiae in the matter. Although he cited personal reasons, the decision was linked to his resolve not to appear in Supreme Court after he was refused by Centre to be elevated as judge of apex court.
Subramanium found support from one of the respondents who was a devotee of the temple and who was the first to raise voice against the manner in which the temple was managed by the royal family of Travancore. The Court kept Subramanium’s letter in abeyance on the assurance by the respondent’s counsel to make the senior counsel reconsider his decision.
The bench of Justices TS Thakur and AR Dave posted the matter for hearing on November 11 when it decided to take up two separate reports filed by the Trivandrum Additional District Judge in his capacity as Chairman of the temple’s Administrative Committee and former CAG Vinod Rai who conducted an audit of temple on orders of the court.