Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has directed the Mohan Majhi government to table the long-pending Justice Raghubir Das Commission of Enquiry report on the missing key of Ratna Bhandar, the treasury of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, before the Odisha Assembly during its upcoming session.
The directive came during a recent hearing, where Advocate General informed the court that the report would first be presented to the Cabinet for review, and then placed before the Assembly for a conscious decision.
The court also asked the government to complete a comprehensive tally of the valuables stored in the Ratna Bhandar with the benchmark inventory prepared in 1978, and submit a report within three months.
The division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M S Raman further noted that repair and conservation work of the Ratna Bhandar had already been completed by the Archaeological Survey of India. It stressed that no complacency can be shown in matters relating to the temple’s valuables and directed the state to show urgency in completing the process.
The matter has been listed for further hearing after three months, when the state is expected to submit its compliance report.
Justice Raghubir Das Commission of Enquiry report
The one-man judicial panel was formed on June 6, 2018, to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the key to the inner Ratna Bhandar. Retired Orissa High Court judge Justice Raghubir Das submitted a 324-page report to the state government on November 29, 2018, but the findings have not been made public.
The PIL, seeking tabling of the enquiry report on the missing keys of ‘Ratna Bhandar’ in the state Assembly, was filed in 2024. The state government, however in March last year, told the HC in an affidavit that the court cannot force it to make public the inquiry report. It was at odds with its affidavit filed on June 19, 2024, when the government had agreed to make the report public.
The ruling BJP had promised to make the report public within a month of coming to power ahead of the elections to the state assembly in 2024.
Inventory In 3 Phases
In January, the temple managing committee in a meeting chaired by Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb, decided that the inventory of jewellery and other valuables at the Ratna Bhandar will be carried out in 3 phases. First, the ornaments and jewels in the ‘chalanti bhandar’ (active chamber) will be counted, followed by the ‘bahara bhandar’ (outer chamber) and then the ‘bhitar bhandar’ (inner chamber) of the temple’s treasury.
It also gave the go-ahead to the draft 11-page standard operating procedure (SOP) prepared by the Shree Jagannath Temple Ratna Bhandar inventory committee and decided to send it to the state government for final approval, following which a specific date for commencing the inventory work was to be set.
