In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court upheld the rights of the Travancore royal family in administration of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. The long-awaited verdict was delivered on July 13, 2020.
The verdict has cleared the long-standing dispute over the administration and management of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, which is one of the country’s richest temples. The dispute was pending in the Supreme Court for almost nine years.
The case was pending before the Supreme Court in the wake of charges of alleged financial irregularities in the temple’s administration.
Key Highlights
• The Supreme Court with its current verdict has overruled the 2011 verdict of the Kerala High Court, in which the court had directed the state government to set up a trust to take control over the administration, management and assets of Kerala’s Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple.
• An SC bench headed by Justice U U Lalit, in a historic verdict, upheld the rights of the Royal Family of Travancore in the administration of the temple.
• The apex court’s verdict came against a batch of petitions that were filed against the January 31, 2011 verdict of the Kerala High Court.
• The Supreme Court observed that the death of the last Travancore ruler, who signed the covenant, does not affect the rights of the Shebaitship Travancore family over the temple. The rights will survive as per the customs, the court-ordered.
• The last ruler of Travancore had managed the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple by powers conferred on him, until his death in 1991.
• The case had reached the court in the wake of charges of alleged financial irregularities.
• The apex court ruled that as an interim measure, the District Judge of Thiruvananthapuram will head an administrative committee to oversee the affairs of the temple till a new committee is constituted.
• The top court had also directed the Kerala state government to prepare an inventory of the temple’s vaults A to F. The court later clarified that vault B will not be opened without express orders from the court.
• The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple is one of the world’s richest temples.
Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple Controversy |
| • The Padmanabhaswamy temple, located in Thiruvananthapuram, was rebuilt in its present form by the Travancore Royal House in the 18th century. The Travancore Royal Family ruled southern Kerala and some parts of Tamil Nadu before the integration of the princely state with the Indian Union in 1947. • The century-old Vishnu temple and its assets belong to Lord Padmanabhaswamy. It has been traditionally managed a trust headed by the Travancore royal family. • The temple has six vaults, also known as nilavaras, which have been labelled as A to F. While vault has not been opened for centuries, A was opened in the early 1930s and vaults C-F have been opened from time to time in recent years. The priests of the temple are the custodians of the four vaults-C-F. • In June 2011, the Supreme Court directed the authorities from the archaeology department and the fire services, to open five vaults in the temple except for vault B, which unveiled wealth amounting to almost Rs 1 crore in form of jewellery, coins, idols, utensils and weapons. Vault B- Forbidden zone?Vault B of the Padmanabhaswamy temple is sealed with an iron door that has the image of a cobra on it. The vault, by far the largest vault of the reported six, has not been opened due to the belief that opening it would result in misfortune. As per one of the oldest existing estimates regarding Vault B by the Travancore Royal Family in the 1880s, the gold and precious stones contained in the vault amount to at least Rs 12,000 Crores in 1880s' terms. When compared to the present day with subsequent inflation of the rupee and increase in the value of gold and precious stones since the treasure in the unopened vault B could be worth at least Rs 50 trillion or USD 700 billion in present-day terms. |
Background
The Kerala High Court had on January 31, 2011 directed the Kerala state government to set up a body or a trust to manage and administer the affairs and assets of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple.
The Supreme Court had on May 2, 2011 ordered a stay on the High Court’s order regarding the take over of the temple’s assets and management. An SC bench comprising Justices U U Lalit and Indu Malhotra had later on April 10, 2019 reserved its judgement on the pleas challenging the Kerala High Court's January 2011 verdict.
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