In a 577-page report submitted to Supreme Court, Amicus Curiae Gopal
Subramaniam has urged the court to order an audit of the wealth of the
Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple by former Comptroller and Auditor General
of India Vinod Rai.
In his report, in which he has expressed deep anguish about the several
serious irregularities in the management of the temple and its wealth,
the Amicus Curiae has sought an injunction from the apex court
restraining the present trustee and his family members from interfering
either directly or indirectly with the day-to-day management of the
temple. The court’s intervention was essential “to protect the temple in
the interest of the deity as well as Bhaktas” and “to ensure that Sree
Padmanabha Swamy receives the pooja, upachara and allied observances
which had been maintained in the past,” the Amicus Curiae has said.
Auditors’ team
The audit, he said, should be undertaken by Mr. Rai and a team of
auditors to be appointed by him. He should be assisted by a Deputy
Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) who will be nominated by the
RBI Governor in consultation with the Amicus Curiae. The audit should
cover management of the temple, the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple Trust
and allied institutions over the past 25 years. Mr. Rai should be
empowered to take into custody and seal all documents of the trust
properties forthwith, Mr. Subramaniam has suggested.
He also urged the court to direct Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma, the
present trustee of the temple, to file an affidavit after consulting
relevant records and checking all the bank accounts of the temple. The
affidavit should have details of various fixed deposits lying in the
bank accounts of the temple and set out the details of the Sree
Pandaravaka land belonging to Sree Padmanabha Swamy and details of the
alienation of such properties and all documents pertaining to such
alienation, if any.
The Amicus Curiae has observed as follows: “Although the palace had
resisted the opening of Kallara ‘B’, there are eyewitnesses’ accounts
that a member of the palace and the executive officer opened Kallara ‘B’
some years ago (The said executive officer is no longer alive). In
fact, Kallara ‘B’ appears to have been opened more than once and there
were attempts to photograph the jewellery not for the purpose of
safekeeping but possibly to make available such information to buyers as
the royal family did believe that these are personal treasures.”
Mismanagement
“The large amount of gold and silver, the discovery of which was a shock
to the Amicus Curiae, is a singular instance of mismanagement. The
presence of a gold plating machine is also yet another unexplained
circumstance. This discovery raises a doubt of the organised extraction
by persons belonging to the highest echelons,” the Amicus Curiae has
said and added, “There appears to be resistance on the part of the
entire State apparatus in effectively addressing the said issues. The
lack of adequate investigation by the police is a telling sign that
although Trivandrum is a city in the State of Kerala, parallelism based
on monarchic rule appears to predominate the social psyche.”
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