The court emphasized the necessity of establishing legal ownership and compliance with audit regulations for Temple Advisory Committees to ensure transparency in fund management.

ORDER :

Anil K. Narendran, J.

1. This DBP is registered based on the directions contained in the order of a Division Bench of this Court dated 09.04.2018 in DBP No.1 of 2017 and W.P.(C)No.6218 of 2017. The said order reads thus:

1. DBP No.1 of 2017 was registered on the basis of TDB report No.1 of 2017, placed on record before this Court by the learned Ombudsman for the Travancore and Cochin Devaswom Boards.

2. The learned Ombudsman has, in the said report, invited our attention to three issues relating to the Thalayolaparambu Sree Karthiayani Devi Temple, which is under the control of the Travancore Devaswom Board. He points out that a tank situated in an extent of 15 cents of land, which lies nearly 500 metres away from the temple in survey No. 213/4A, though is being used by the temple for its purposes, no documents are available to bring it under the legal ownership of the temple or the Devaswom Board. The learned Ombudsman, therefore, recommended that the orders be considered appropriately with respect to this issue.

3. Secondly, the learned Ombudsman refers to the problems relating to the creation of a Temple Advisory Committee, especially because there are no Regulations or Rules governing the constitution of such committee under the Travancore Devaswom Board.

4. Finally, with respect to the accounts of the festival committee, the learned Ombudsman, refers to the report of the Commissioner of the Devaswom which states that the Superintendent of Police has made a recommendation that the vigilance wing of the Travancore Devaswom Board be directed to comply with the directions contained in paragraph 3 of the order of this Court dated 06.01.2016 in DBP No.141 of 2015. The said direction of this Court is as under:

“The Travancore Devaswom Board shall ensure that the accounts of the festival committee of the Sree Karthiayani Devi Temple and connected records are forthwith inspected and Vigilance Wing of the Travancore Devaswom Board shall enquire into the complaints against the alleged collection of amounts without proper receipts. This exercise shall be carried out within a period of two months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. Thereafter, the accounts of festival committee shall be finalized and subjected to Audit for the Travancore Devaswom Board. Such audit exercise shall be completed within a further period of six months, without fail. The audit report shall be placed before the learned Ombudsman for Travancore and Cochin Devaswom Boards.”

5. As regards Writ Petition No. 6218 of 2017 is concerned, it has been filed by a certain Sri. Anilkumar K.B. who claims to be a member of the Kshetrashema Samithi of Sree Vaikom Mahadeva Temple, complaining that the Temple Advisory Committee has not been constituted in the temple and he has prayed that directions be issued to the Board to have such a committee constituted at the earliest after modifying the existing bye-laws for such purpose, namely, Ext.P1.

6. When this matter was taken up today, the learned standing counsel for the Travancore Devaswom Board, Sri. Kunhikrishnan, submitted before us that the Board has already approved the final draft of the amended Bye-Laws for the constitution of the Temple Advisory Committee and he has placed it on record as Annexrue A2 in DBP No. 1 of 2017.

7. We notice the submissions of the learned standing counsel for the Devaswom Board that Annexure A2 Bye-Laws has been drafted modifying the existing Bye-law, after incorporating the suggestions of the learned Ombudsman and all other stake holders. We, therefore, are of the view that Annexure A2 shou