The Supreme Court has asked the Kerala government to put in place an integrated multi-layer security system for the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple wealth and said it would consider the issue of opening Kallara (Vault) B only after an inventory of already unearthed valuables was prepared. A bench of Justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik did not involve central security forces in the temple treasure protection and said it trusted the Oomen Chandy government in effecting foolproof security taking into account the expert committee identified 13 security issues and 16 measures suggested by it (committee). “In implementing the security system, the state government will take note of temple traditions, customs and practices, and accommodate the views of the temple administration as far as possible,” the bench said. It accepted the committee’s suggestion to involve Kerala State Electronic Corporation (Keltron) and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) for implementing the work plan relating to digital archiving of temple antiques, which would include recording of detailed information of antiques, computerise the data base and record 3-D image of the article. Though the committee had sought a year’s time to complete the task, the bench said it would try to curtail the period without compromising with the quality of work. It also asked the temple administration to pay Rs 25 lakhs per year for the work while the rest would be borne by the state government. “The issue relating to opening of Kallara ‘B’ shall be considered after substantial progress is made in regard to documentation, categorisation, security, preservation, conservation, maintenance and storage relating to the contents in the other Kallaras,” the bench said. For this work, the state government would meet the expenses which have been worked out by the committee to be Rs 2.98 crores. The court asked the committee to give a status report about its work after three months.
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