HYDERABAD: A division bench of the High Court on Tuesday directed the Andhra Pradesh government and the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams board to submit details of the alleged excavation work taken up in the temple kitchen (inner potu) where rice prasadams were prepared in accordance with Agama shastras. It also called for submission of details relating to the letter of the Archaeological Survey of India, declaring the TTD and its group of temples situated at Tirumala as ‘protected monuments’. Besides, it directed the ASI to tell on what basis it decided to consider the TTD and its temples as protected monuments.
The bench issued notices to the AP principal secretary to revenue (endowments), TTD chairman, TTD executive officer and member-secretary and ASI superintendent for filing detailed counter affidavits on the PIL which sought a CBI probe into the activities of the TTD and also the untraceable antique jewellery of Lord Venkateswara.
The bench, comprising acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice J Uma Devi, passed this order on the PIL filed by Anil Kumar Borrugadda of Guntur district in AP and Bhupendra K Goswami of Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat with a plea for appointment of a committee to look into the hidden treasures in Potu Nelamaligalu, a CBI inquiry into the income and expenditure of the TTD, and directions to the ASI to restore the letter dated May 4, 2018 which was withdrawn later.
The petitioners’ counsel told the court that the courts had, in the past, ordered execution of the temple work as per Agama shastras but the TTD authorities were flouting those orders by taking up digging work in the temple kitchen, he pointed out.
Intervening, the bench asked the counsel about the source of his information about the digging work. The counsel said that the TTD was taking up such works in the name of repairs. The TTD’s action raised doubts among devotees spread across the world.
On the other hand, AP advocate-general Dammalapati Srinivas said there was no excavation work as alleged by the petitioner. Only small repairs were taken up in accordance with Agama shastras, he contended.
At this stage, the petitioner’s counsel said that the ASI had withdrawn its letter declaring TTD and its temples as protected monuments when the state government opposed it. The bench then asked the counsel for ASI to respond and directed him to file an affidavit in this regard. The bench said and posted the matter to July 24 for filing counter affidavits by the respondents.
Missing jewellery
Jewellery worth Rs 52,000 crore donated by Sri Krishnadevaraya and others has not been insured till date. There were reports that one of the jewels, ‘pink diamond’, went missing and that it was auctioned in Geneva recently, the petitioners counsel said. Reacting to these submissions, the bench said that the issue of pink diamond was not new and in 2010 itself it was stated that the diamond was broken. The issue was still pending before the High Court, it noted.