Supreme Court to hear PILs over alleged financial irregularities (Img: Dynamite News)
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear today, a batch of public interest litigations seeking an independent investigation into alleged irregularities involving donations and offerings received by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in Ayodhya.
A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana is expected to take up the petitions. The pleas have been filed by advocate Narendra Kumar Goswami, lawyers Ajay Kumar Rai and Dinesh Kumar Yadav, and RJD MP Sudhakar Singh.
The petitions seek a court-monitored or Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the alleged misappropriation of temple donations. One of the pleas has also requested an audit of the Trust’s finances by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The petitioners have requested the preservation of physical documents, bank statements, digital ledgers, UPI transaction records, CCTV footage and other material linked to donations and valuable offerings.
Sudhakar Singh’s petition has sought a comprehensive forensic audit of the Trust’s finances and Supreme Court supervision of the investigation. It has also requested the creation of a temporary oversight committee consisting of retired judicial officers and financial experts.
The plea further seeks restrictions on major financial decisions during the investigation and publication of audited statements and donation records for greater transparency.
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The apex court had earlier declined to grant an urgent hearing to one of the petitioners and directed that the matter be listed after the summer vacation. The petitions have now been scheduled for consideration amid an ongoing Special Investigation Team probe into the alleged theft and mishandling of temple donations.
The allegations remain under investigation, and the Supreme Court has not yet expressed any opinion on their merits.
