Hyderabad, August 4
The affairs of Tirumala temple, the country’s richest shrine, have come under judicial scrutiny with the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking details of its properties including gold and jewellery donated by devotees over the years.

The shrine has huge reserves of gold and jewellery, estimated to be worth over Rs 55,000 crore. The details of ornaments and assets have not been made public so far. However, according to unofficial estimates, the temple treasury has over 12 tonne of gold, jewellery, coins and other ornaments.

The court order seeks to lift the veil of secrecy over the temple properties. Acting on a public interest litigation (PIL), a Division Bench of the court, comprising Justice G Raghuram and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan directed the board of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the affairs of temple, to make an inventory of all properties, including jewellery, belonging to Lord Venkateswara and other temples under the TTD’s administrative control and submit it to the court. The court ordered that the details be submitted within three weeks.

The orders were passed based on a petition filed by B Govinda Reddy belonging to Nellore. The petitioner raised fears over the safety of the jewellery in the wake of disappearance of some cold coins from the temple treasury about three years ago.

He wanted the inventory of all properties of Lord Venkateswara and other deities in the temples managed by the TTD be made public.

On its part, the state government contended that there was no need for a separate inventory as it had already constituted a commission chaired by retired judge Justice M Jagannadham to probe the alleged misappropriation of gold dollars belonging to the temple.

The petitioner’s counsel S Ramachandra Rao told the court that there was no proper maintenance of the records for jewellery. As per the present practice of the TTD Board, the entire treasury is under the supervision of a single official which is against the basic concept of safety.The court wondered as to why the temple administration was reluctant to make a comprehensive inventory of the jewellery.

Meanwhile, TTD chairman DK Adikesavulu Naidu said the temple board would honour the court’s directive and submit a list of properties, assets and ornaments within the stipulated time frame.

The tradition of gold offerings to the Lord goes back to several centuries. The ruler of Vijayanagara empire Krishnadevaraya had visited the temple seven times during the period 1509-1539 and made huge offerings including a diamond-studded crown. Since then, the rulers of various dynasties made gold donations to the temple.

With annual income in excess of Rs 800 crore, Tirumala is considered the richest temple in the country.