The Thiruvananthapuram principal subordinate court on Thursday ordered the executive officer of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple here, to keep back the articles taken from two of its vaults on January 5, 2012, for the Makara Seeveli at the temple.
These articles, including golden pots, sprinklers, a ‘nagappathi' and silver lamps, are now being used for the ongoing ‘parihara kriyas' (remedial rituals), consequent on the recent ‘devaprasnam' conducted by the temple.
As per an earlier order of the court, utensils or articles taken from the temple's vaults for regular pujas and rituals must be kept back in 10 days. Accordingly, the articles taken out on January 5 should have been placed back in vaults C and D latest by January 16.
ADVERTISEMENT
On January 23, the temple authorities sought permission from the court to place these articles back after the conclusion of the ‘parihara kriyas.' Based on an objection filed by one N. Viswambharan, the court dismissed the temple's request.
Temple executive officer V.K. Harikumar told The Hindu that he had not received the order as on Thursday night. “As soon as I get the order, I will comply with the request of the honourable court. However, this will also mean that the ongoing ‘parihara kriyas' will have to be stopped,” he said.
M.V. Nair, head of the expert committee tasked to inventory the temple vaults, told presspersons here on Thursday that the date for the commencement of the inventorying had been so fixed as to allow the completion of the ‘parihara kriyas' in the temple.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Actually everything is set for the inventorying to begin tomorrow,” he said.
Funds not transferred
Meanwhile, the government is yet to transfer the Rs.75 lakh requested by the M.V. Nair committee to meet its office expenses and to pay the experts who would determine the antiquity and purity of various articles in the temple's vaults.
The matter has, reportedly, been held up in the Finance Department. It is understood that the committee — in its interim report to the Supreme Court to be filed on February 15 — will mention this fact. The committee has reportedly been told by the government to start operations using the Rs.15 lakh deposited by the temple administration.
Even though Keltron, the nodal agency for the inventorying, also needs to be paid, the government may choose to increase the budgetary support for the company than go in for an actual payment of money.