Bhubaneswar, Feb 12: The Orissa High Court has directed the State Government to place the Justice Raghubir Dash Commission report on the missing key episode of the Ratna Bhandar of the 12th-century Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri before the Odisha Legislative Assembly in its forthcoming session.
While hearing a public interest litigation, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M.S. Raman observed that the report, prepared under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, must be tabled on the floor of the House without delay. The court stressed that there should be no “dormant exercise” in the matter and termed it the State’s “ordained duty” to act promptly.
The Bench also instructed the government to complete within three months the reconciliation of the latest Ratna Bhandar inventory with the one prepared in 1978, noting that valuables listed earlier matched current records.
The controversy dates back to June 5, 2018, when a judicial probe was ordered into the missing keys. The High Court has now made it clear that the report must be placed before the Assembly without further delay.
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