A petition was filed in the Madras High Court alleging that the 'Master Register' maintained by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department, which contained statistics on jewellery and idols of each of the temples under its control has gone missing.
Chennai:
''The petitioner has brought some disturbing facts to the notice of this court,'' the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, observed on Thursday.
The state should look into the petitioner's allegation that the Master Register and certain case diaries relating to jewellery and idol theft cases in the state, have gone missing, the bench said.
Petitioner has also feared that the probe in those cases might be stopped midway for 'extraneous considerations', the bench pointed out.
The bench was passing further interim orders on a PIL petition from Venkataraman, who alleged that the jewels and idols in several temples in the State, which were under the control of the HR&CE, have gone missing.
Upon being prima facie satisfied with the seriousness of the charges levelled, the bench on January 20 this year had directed the authorities concerned to file a counter after ascertaining the temples from where idols or jewellery had gone missing.
It also called for a road map to recover the stolen jewellery and prevent the recurrence of such incidents.
Accordingly, the counter was filed on Thursday.
Not satisfied with the contents of the counter, the bench said that the State should re-consider the stand indicated in the counter-affidavit, particularly since there has been a change of government.
It cannot be the State's stand that idols or jewellery have not gone missing or that adequate or appropriate steps have been taken to recover the same.
The case is adjourned till July 8.
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