Bhubaneswar: The Orissa High Court has directed the state government to table the report of the Justice Raghubir Dash Commission on the missing key of the Srimandir Ratna Bhandar on the floor of the Assembly in the ensuing session.
The HC also directed the government to complete the inventorisation of valuables in the treasury of the 12th-century shrine within three months. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice MS Raman issued the directive recently while hearing a PIL concerning the inventorisation, repair, and maintenance of the Ratna Bhandar.
Amid raging public anger over the mysterious disappearance of the key to the inner Ratna Bhandar, the then BJD government ordered a judicial inquiry into the issue in June 2018. Soon after, the Justice Raghubir Dash Commission was constituted, and its report was subsequently submitted to the state government.
Though the report was to be tabled in the Assembly as per norms, the government failed to do so. Years later, the BJD government decided to place the report before the Cabinet to be constituted after the results of the 2024 Assembly election. In its order, the HC said, “We, therefore, direct that the report of the inquiry committee (on the missing key) be placed on the floor of the Assembly in the ensuing session, and we expect that a decision will be taken thereupon.” The bench also reviewed the steps taken for the conservation of the Ratna Bhandar.
It noted that a high-level committee was constituted after the change in political regime, and a standard operating procedure (SOP) was framed in July 2024 for opening the inner and outer chambers. The HC further said, “We also direct the state government to complete the exercise of tallying the inventory report submitted by the newly constituted committee with the report of 1978 within three months.”