Jagannath Temple Reforms: SC Appoints Ranjit Kumar As Amicus Curiae

Bhubaneswar: The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed senior lawyer and former Solicitor General, Ranjit Kumar, as the amicus curiae to oversee the reforms in Jagannath Temple in Puri.

The appointment of Ranjit Kumar was taken by a three-member division bench of the apex court, comprising Justices Arjan Kumar Sikri, Mukeshkumar Rasikbhai Shah and S Abdul Nazeer.

The bench entrusted senior lawyer Priya Hingorani to assist Kumar in his work and deferred its hearing on the temple reforms to February 5.

A senior advocate practising in Supreme Court of India, Ranjit Kumar was appointed as Solicitor General of India on June 7, 2014, by the incumbent government of Narendra Modi, succeeding Mohan Parasaran. However, he resigned from the post on October 20, 2017, citing a personal family-related reason.

The apex court had appointed Gopal Subramanium as the amicus curiae on June 6 last year and asked him to submit a report on the implementation of Jagannath temple reform proposals on the basis of those filed by Puri district judge and central and the state governments in consultation with the temple sevayats and research scholars of the state.

The apex court had scheduled a hearing on temple reforms on the basis of the final report to be submitted by Subramanium on November 30.

However, it deferred it to the second week of January after Subramanium, in a letter to the Supreme Court Registry on November 25, had prayed to relieve him of the responsibility due to personal reasons.