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Cuttack, Nov 22: The Orissa High Court Wednesday took suo motu cognisance of media reports about photos of the repair work at Puri’s Jagannath Temple going viral on FB, and issued a notice to the Sree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).
The High Court has asked the chief administrator of SJTA, which was set up by the state government, to file a report by December 6 explaining how the pictures came in the public domain.
Photos of the repair carried out on ‘Jagamohan’, the hall facing the sanctum sanctorum of the 12th century shrine, were found posted on FB.
A division bench of the HC headed by Chief Justice Vineet Saran, which was adjudicating a PIL on this and was monitoring the repair works undertaken by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on the temple, expressed concern over the issue. The bench had gone through media reports on the issue.
The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Wednesday issued a show-cause notice to the ASI and asked it to report within three days.
In his letter to the ASI Superintending Archaeologist, Bhubaneswar Circle, SJTA chief administrator PK Jena said one of the scientists engaged by ASI to advise on improving the ventilation system inside the temple’s sanctum sanctorum had posted photographs of the ‘Jagamohan’ on FB.
Terming it is a serious issue impacting the security of the temple, Jena said, “Only the ASI is authorised to take photographs inside temple premises if required for conservation. No other entity is allowed to take photos without the permission of the SJTA.”
Any photograph taken must be used only for documentation of the conservation, he said.
The temple administration has asked the ASI to reply under what circumstances the photographs were taken by scientists of the Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR), Dhanbad, and who allowed the CIMFR team to share it on FB? The SJTA asked what action was taken regarding the serious lapses of the CIMFR team and what mechanism has been put in place for preventing it, Jena said.
The SJTA has also asked the ASI to collect an undertaking from all organisations, consultants and agencies working for the temple to stop the publishing of sensitive photographs in the public domain.
Meanwhile, in response to last week’s HC notice about the ongoing repair works, the Temple administration sought some more time to file the latest status report. The HC has asked the SJTA to file the status report on December 6.
