New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine a plea for opening of "vault B" of the famed Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple as sought by an expert committee to further strengthen the security apparatus around the purported massive wealth stored in it.
A bench of justices R M Lodha and A K Patnaik said it
will pass "appropriate orders" on April 18 after looking into
the plea made by the committee appointed by it.
Meanwhile, it asked the panel to supply copies of its
report relating to the plea to other parties in the dispute.
The committee in its report had stated that construction
of a new high security vault on the lines of the RBI may be
taken up only after opening vault B of the temple to determine
the quantum of wealth artifacts stored in it since several
generations.
Earlier, the bench had restrained a Thiruvananthapuram
court from passing any further orders on the ongoing dispute
relating to assets and management of the temple as it was
already monitoring the case.
The apex court had also agreed to examine certain
suggestions put forth by the committee appointed by it to
strengthen the security apparatus in and around the temple
whose assets are valued at several hundred crores of rupees.
The committee among other things had suggested
construction of security for the vaults on the lines of the
Reserve Bank of India, immediate release of funds by the state
government for taking up the security measures and hiring an
international agency with sufficient expertise to ensure
fool-proof measures with particular emphasis on maintaining
the traditions, culture and confidentiality of the
assets.
PTI
