India News | HC Seeks Odisha Govt's Reply over Plea to Make Report on Ratna Bhandar Keys Public

Cuttack, Apr 25 (PTI) The Orissa High Court on Tuesday asked the state government to file its response by July 10 on a petition that seeks direction to make the report of Justice Raghubir Das's Commission of Inquiry on the missing Ratna Bhandar keys of Puri's Jagannath temple public.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar asked the state government to file its affidavit in response to the writ petition filed by a Puri-based social worker.

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The commission was formed in June 2018 to probe the circumstances under which the keys of the Ratna Bhandar or treasury of the Jagannath temple missing. The commission submitted its report to the state government in November of that year, but it was not made public.

Hearing the matter, the division bench, also comprising Justice Gouri Shankar Satapathy, issued a notice to the chief secretary, law secretary, and the chief administrator and deputy chief administrator of the temple to file their responses by July 10, the next date of hearing.

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The Ratna Bhandar is where jewellery of the trinity is kept. It has two chambers. While the keys to the outer chamber are available, the keys to the inner chamber are missing.

When the news of missing keys was made public in 2018, emotions ran high among devotees, forcing the state to order a judicial commission of inquiry.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)