Temple issue: Amicus curiae defends Thantris

The Thantris are justified in saying that the utensils and ornaments which are being used for worship at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple should not be touched by others for inventorying.

The inventorisation should perhaps be done by the Thantris themselves, stated senior advocate and former Solicitor General of India Gopal Subramanium who was appointed as the amicus curiae by the apex court in the case relating to the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple case.

In his report submitted to the apex court recently, he also said that the suggestion of the Expert Committee that a vault must be hired in the State Bank of India or the State Bank of Travancore to store the hard disc of the backup of the storage of data with regard to inventorisation appears to be correct and this may be accepted by the apex court.

And that Sri Adithya Varma, nominee of His Highness Sri Marthanda Varma and C Karthikeyan Nair, the present Administrative Officer of the Expert Committee should be authorised to operate the vault may also be accepted, he said.

Gopal Subramanium further said that the levels of confidentiality being maintained by the inventorying team are exemplary and there is no reason to doubt that any information is being revealed to outsiders. The present standards should be maintained until the completion of the task, he stated.

The amicus curia stated that there have been reports in the media about the Expert Committee, the Royal family and the officers of the state government. The attempts to tarnish the image of the Expert Committee are not warranted, he said.

The Expert committee has been diligently and efficiently functioning and performing the task assigned to it by the apex court and no one should be permitted to belittle the work done by the committee, he added.

It may be recalled that on November 6, the court had issued directions to undertake the repair of Vault A of the temple as a first step.

The Bench, in its order said, the amicus curiae says that Vault A should be strengthened first. Strengthening of the Vault A may commence at the earliest.