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Hyderabad High Court seeks information on excavation at TTD kitchen

When the petitioner cited a provision under the Endowments Act, the bench said that the provision was not relevant to this case.

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday directed the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to produce all the details with regard to the alleged excavation in the kitchen (potu) of the Lord Venkateswara Temple at Tirumala. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice J. Uma Devi while dealing with a PIL seeking to order a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the income and expenditure of the TTD and also the untraceable antiques of Lord Venkateswara, directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to explain on what basis it had issued the circular declaring the TTD and its group of temples located at Tirumala as protected monuments.

The bench was dealing with petition by Anil Kumar Borrugadda from Guntur district and Bhupendra Goswamy, urging the court to appoint a commissioner to take stock of the Nelamaligalu and the conduct of religious practices as per the Agama Shastras. Counsel for the petitioner submitted that earlier also courts have given directions that the religious practices at Tirumala are to be carried out as per the Agama Shastras, and the TTD allowing the excavation in the Potu, is against the Agama Shastras.

When the bench questioned how they knew about the excavations in the Potu, their counsel replied that newspapers had carried reports about the excavations and former TTD head priest Ramana Deekshithulu also disclosed it before the media. They prayed the court to direct the Archaeological Survey of India to retract the letter issued on May 4, 2018 declaring the TTD and its group of temples located at Tirumala as protected monuments. When counsel mentioned the disappearance of the Pink Diamond and news reports about auctioning of the diamond in Geneva, the bench recalled that in 2010 a petition had been moved in the High Court with regard to damage caused to the diamond, and at that time the authorities had informed the court that it was not a diamond it was a ruby.

Reacting to the submission of counsel that the TTD was functioning without having Dharma Parishad, the bench asked the petitioner to show which law stipulates that the TTD has to conduct its functions only after constituting the Dharma Parishad. When the petitioner cited a provision under the Endowments Act, the bench said that the provision was not relevant to this case. Reminding that the TTD is running colleges and medical institutions, the bench said that there was nothing wrong in TTD conducting such secular activities.

The court witnessed a prolonged discussion between the bench and counsel when the latter mentioned mentioned that the gold plating of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple and the bench said that the gold plating was done some years ago and there were no inscriptions on it. Dammalapati Srinivas, advocate general of AP told the court that no excavations were allowed in the potu except taking out some amount of soil in some places of the kitchen for repairs and this too was done only after taking advice from the Agama Pandits. The bench issued notices to the Principal Secretary, Endowments, Executive Officer and Chairman of the TTD and Superintendent of the ASI to file counter affidavits by July 24, the date set for further hearing of the case.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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