Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on June 29 declined an urgent hearing on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a court-monitored probe and forensic audit into the handling of donations and offerings received by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust over the alleged donation theft linked to the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
When the matter was mentioned before a Bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Sheel Nagu, the PIL litigant pressed for an urgent listing, saying the allegations raised in the plea were “very serious” and expressing apprehensions over the manner in which the state government was dealing with the matter.
Questioning the urgency, the Justice Sundresh-led Bench asked, “What’s the urgency?” before directing that the plea be listed immediately after the court reopens post-summer vacation.
The writ petition, filed by advocate Narendra Goswami in his personal capacity, seeks directions for the preservation of records and evidence relating to donations made at the Ram Janmabhoomi temple and greater transparency in the administration of temple offerings.
According to the plea, offerings made to a deity in a public temple constitute “sacred trust property” vesting in the deity as a juristic person, and persons handling such offerings are fiduciaries bound by duties of transparency, accountability and preservation.
The petition has sought immediate preservation of “all evidence, records, CCTV footage, and digital logs relating to donations and offerings at Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, Ayodhya”.
The PIL has also urged the apex court to direct the formulation of minimum constitutional safeguards for the transparent handling of public temple donations and offerings in temples of national importance.
