MADURAI: Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought direction to the HR and CE department to place the golden sivalinga, panchaloha idols, old 'kalasam' and the ornaments of the deity of Adikesava Perumal Temple in Thiruvattar on the temple premises for worship, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Friday directed the joint commissioner of Kanniyakumari district temples to submit a report containing three different lists of jewels belonging to the Thiruvattar temple.
A Bench of justices R Subramanian and L Victoria Gowri, which gave the direction, wanted the first list to contain the details of jewels and other valuables that were available with the temple prior to the incident of theft reported in the temple in 1992. The judges directed that the second list should be prepared by conducting a verification on the temple premises, in the presence of the Principal Subordinate Judge, Kanniyakumari, by taking out the jewels available in the temple at present. This list should be certified by the Principal Subordinate Judge before being submitted to the HC, the judges added.
The third list should contain details of jewels that were stolen in 1992, as per the criminal court records, they further said. The judges directed the joint commissioner to submit the three lists to the High Court by June 15 and be present before the court for the next hearing on June 19.
The PIL was filed by Sree Adhikesava Seva Trust, represented by its secretary N Thangappan. According to the petition, the authorities are not properly displaying the gold ornaments and old kalasams in the temple despite various directions issued by the HC. Thangappan also claimed that during an inspection conducted by the deputy commissioner of HR and CE department in June 1992 in the presence of the public, the temple had 1,730 grammes of gold jewels. But at present, such a huge quantity of jewels is not available in the temple, he alleged. When he filed an RTI application in this regard in 2022, he was informed that the temple's jewels have been kept in a safe room in Neelakandasamy temple in Padmanabhapuram, he added and sought the above direction.