Supreme Court to hear PILs over alleged donation scam in Ram Temple Trust on Monday

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is slated to hear, on Monday, a batch of public interest litigations (PILs) seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged financial irregularities in the handling of donations and offerings received by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in Ayodhya. 

As per the causelist published on the apex court’s official website, a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana is scheduled to take up the petitions for hearing on July 13.

The matters include a writ petition filed by advocate Narendra Kumar Goswami in person, a criminal writ petition filed by Ajay Kumar Rai and another against the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust and others, and a separate petition moved by RJD MP Sudhakar Singh.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had declined an urgent hearing on Goswami’s plea when it was mentioned before a Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Sheel Nagu.

The petitioner had pressed for an immediate listing, contending that the allegations raised were “very serious”.

Questioning the urgency, the Justice Sundresh-led Bench had directed that the matter be listed after the top court reopened following the summer vacation.

Goswami’s petition seeks directions for preservation of records and evidence relating to donations made at the Ram Janmabhoomi temple and greater transparency in the administration of temple offerings. According to the plea, offerings made to a deity in a public temple constitute “sacred trust property” vesting in the deity as a juristic person, and persons handling such offerings are fiduciaries bound by duties of transparency, accountability, and preservation.

The petition has sought immediate preservation of all records, CCTV footage and digital logs relating to donations and offerings at the temple, besides seeking a sealed status report of the ongoing Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe and an independent forensic audit of all donations, offerings and valuable items received by the Trust since its inception. (IANS)

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