The former Solicitor-General, Gopal Subramanium, opted out as amicus curiae in the Padmanabha Swamy temple case on Tuesday.
In a letter to Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha, Mr. Subramanium said his reason for withdrawing was based on personal grounds. He returned the files concerning the case to the Supreme Court Registry.
Mr. Subramanium, after the rejection of his candidature for elevation to the Supreme Court, had said that he would appear in the apex court only after the retirement of CJI Lodha in September.
However, the temple case, previously heard by a Bench led by Justice Lodha, is now scheduled for Wednesday before another Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and Anil Dave.
As amicus, Mr. Subramanium’s report on the condition of the temple and its assets in Thiruvananthapuram had created a storm.
In April, his amicus report — an outcome of a 35-day stay on the temple premises — had indicated that gold and silver jewellery offered by devotees to Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple were not accounted for by the temple administration.
The report had complained of corruption, filth and disregard of ethics in the temple’s administration.
He had reported that broken pieces of the main deity’s idol were found in a bag. He had suggested seeking help from the former Comptroller and Auditor-General, Vinod Rai, to audit the inventories in the lockers.
A Bench of Justices Lodha and A.K. Patnaik had then described the report as “disturbing” and said it would intervene in “an extremely serious matter.”
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