KOCHI: Coming down heavily on the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) for sending gold-plated sheets of the ‘dwarapalaka idols’ of Sabarimala to Chennai for repair without informing the special commissioner or the court, the Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the board to bring the sheets back. It also sought explanation from devaswom officials for what it said was ‘wilful violation’ of the earlier directive.
A division bench comprising Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan and Justice K V Jayakumar said, “Since the repair work has been undertaken without proper intimation either to the special commissioner or to this court, we deem it necessary to direct the board to forthwith stop the repair work being carried out at Smart Creations in Ambattur Industrial Estate, Chennai, on the sponsorship of Unnikrishnan Potti. The items transported shall be re-transported back to the Sannidhanam.”
The bench said the devaswom commissioner, executive officer and Thiruvabharanam commissioner shall show cause why action should not be taken against them for wilful violation of the earlier binding directions.
Directive follows Sabarimala spl commissioner’s report
In 2023, the HC had occasion to consider issues relating to the repair of the ‘mudramala’, ‘japamala’, and ‘yogadandu’ adorning the idol of the presiding deity of Sabarimala Sree Dharma Sastha temple, undertaken without furnishing any information to the special commissioner. The court had deprecated the act and held the procedure adopted by the TDB in effecting those repairs after removing the ornaments from the sreekovil without intimating the special commissioner was highly inappropriate.
The HC had issued specific directions to the devaswom and Thiruvabharanam commissioners to ensure all such activities in the temple’s sreekovil shall be undertaken only with prior intimation to the special commissioner to enable him to file a report before the HC if necessary and seek appropriate orders.
In a report before the HC, Sabarimala special commissioner R Jayakrishnan had on Tuesday said he got information on September 8 that the gold covering of the dwarapalaka idols of the hill shrine’s sanctum sanctorum were detached and sent to Chennai for restoration work without the mandatory permission of the court.
The TDB, admitting that the gold-plated copper sheet coverings were sent to Chennai, however, had maintained it was done strictly in line with the procedural formalities.