It is a ‘pitiful’ state of affairs at the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala, where gold and cash freely flows into its coffers daily. A damning report by senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, as amicus curiae, to the Supreme Court left the Kerala Government and the royal family managing the temple for decades squirming as he blamed State agencies and temple administrator of showing utter neglect to the care and preservation of 1,000-year-old temple.
With the report having mainly focused on issues of safety of gold and silver jewellery kept in vaults believed to be pilfered out in connivance with temple administration, and lapses in accounting of daily cash, valuables and land belonging to the temple, Subramanium raised the stink of filth inside and around the temple which required immediate cleaning, repairing and plastering.
Going through the 565-page report submitted by Subramanium following his 35-day stay in the State, the bench of Justices RM lodha and AK Patnaik said, “There are certain disturbing features in the report. The functioning of the Expert Committee (administering the temple) is the primary thing we need to set right.” It decided to pass certain urgent orders on Thursday after hearing the counsels for the royal family and the State Government.
Subramanium read out portions from the report that indicated instances of mismanagement by the family of Marthanda Varma, who have remained the caretakers of the ancient temple. After the discovery of gold and silver in its secret vaults, the Court had constituted an Expert Committee to handle affairs at the temple drawing a representative each from State and family, besides others who were outsiders.
Subramanium told the Court that the seal on the vaults and trunks kept within were tampered and demanded keys of the vaults to be handed over to a judicial officer, preferably the district judge of the area. Next, he focused on the kanikai (offertory) in which the cash, jewellery and valuables was never accounted although during his stay in a single month, Rs 1.29 crore was collected from the 44 offertory boxes in the temple.
In addition, the report showed presence of two rooms close to temple vaults that contained gold and silver articles, which required to be inventoried as the Committee had no clue of it. Also, no register was maintained about the fixed assets or land in the name of temple.
The amicus report stressed on urgent cleanliness of the temple as the priests, security personnel guarding temple vaults, and staff stayed in ‘pitiable’ conditions that seriously compromised the safety of temple property, sought to be protected under Court orders. The main deity’s idol was severely cracked and temple walls had not been painted for past eight years. More shameful was the holy ponds that was covered with moss. Priests who have to take a holy dip in it reported skin infections but no agency, neither state had cleaned it. Although, the royal family dismissed the report as a “flight of imagination,” the Court directed its counsel to specifically address on aspects needing urgent orders on Thursday.