Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has reserved its order on a plea seeking to make public the report of an inquiry commission into the disappearance of Ratnabhandar’s (temple treasury) keys at Jagannath temple in Puri.
Odisha government Friday prayed before a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi and Justice Murahari Sri Raman to grant more time to submit the report.
During the hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer Anup Mohapatra contended that the high court in the hearing dated April 25, 2023, had issued notices to Odisha Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary of Law Department in the state to submit a report on Ratnabhandar. Afterwards, the court directed the government to submit the report by July 1. Thereafter, the government again took two months time to file a status report through an interim application.
However, even after five months since the initial hearing, the state government has sought more time without submitting the report, Mohapatra said.
The matter will be heard next week.
It can be mentioned here that the state government had constituted Justice Raghubir Das Commission June 6, 2018, to investigate the disappearance of the Ratnabhandar keys. The commission had submitted a 354-page report to the state government November 29, 2018.
As per Commission of Inquiry Act of 1952, the government is supposed to take a decision on whether to table the report in the state Assembly after examining it. Opposition parties had also raised the issue in the Assembly for making the inquiry report public. However, there has been no progress in this aspect from 2018.
The petitioner has sought the report to be tabled in the Assembly and made public. He also prayed that the list of ornaments in the Ratnabhandar has not been updated since 1978. The petition also seeks the high court’s direction to prepare a fresh list of ornaments. It has also sought that the ASI be given the responsibility to repair the Ratnabhandar.
Dilip Baral, a social activist from Kamkantia in Puri district, is the petitioner who has been represented by Advocate Anup Mohapatra and Advocate Harapriya Routray at Orissa High Court.
The Odisha Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary of Law Department, the Chief Administrator of Shree Jagannatha Temple Administration (SJTA), the Deputy Chief Administrator of SJTA, Shree Jagannatha Temple managing committee and the Director General of Archaeological Survey of India have been made parties in the petition.
PNN