Ayodhya Ram Mandir Donations Row: Supreme Court To Hear PILs on July 13

The Supreme Court will hear on Monday, July 13 a batch of petitions seeking an independent investigation into the alleged misappropriation and theft concerning Ayodhya Ram Mandir donations.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana will hear the writ petitions filed in the issue.

Recently the Supreme Court had refused to urgently hear one of the petitions seeking registration of an FIR and a court-monitored investigation into the alleged embezzlement of donations collected by the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in Ayodhya. A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Sheel Nagu heard an urgent mentioning made before its bench. "Allegations are very serious...the way State is dealing casts doubts, " the counsel told the court.

The petition has been jointly filed by practising Advocates Ajay Kumar Rai and Dinesh Kumar Yadav, who have sought a direction for a fair, impartial and time-bound investigation into the alleged financial irregularities concerning the functioning and administration of the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. The petitioners have urged the Court to direct registration of an FIR and constitute a multi-disciplinary Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), contending that an independent probe is necessary to inspire public confidence in the investigation.

Another PIL has also been filed before the Supreme Court seeking a forensic audit of donations made to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya, preservation of all evidence relating to temple offerings, and the formulation of a nationwide transparency framework for handling donations received by temples of national importance.

Filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, the petition has been moved by Advocate Narendra Kumar Goswami of the Supreme Court who describes himself as a devotee of Shri Ram Lalla Virajman. The plea raises issues concerning the secular administration of temple donations and argues that offerings made by devotees constitute sacred trust property belonging to the deity, which has long been recognised in law as a juristic person.

RJD MP Sudhakar Singh has also filed a Public Interest Litigation before Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe into the alleged donation theft at Ayodhya Ram Mandir and also a direction to the temple Trust to place before the court complete statement of all donations in form of money and valuables received since its formation on February 5, 2020.

The PIL filed through Advocate Satyam Singh Rajput and Advocate-On-Record Jaswanthi A also seeks transfer of the investigation arising out of the allegations concerning the administration, accounting and utilisation of donations and offerings received by Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust to the Central Bureau of Investigation, to be conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court, or under such independent mechanism as the Court may deem fit and proper.

It is to be noted that an First Information Report (FIR) has been registered in connection with the alleged embezzlement of devotees' donations at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya, with police arresting all eight persons named in the case, including the official responsible for cash counting at the temple's pilgrim facilitation centre. According to police, those arrested include the cash-counting in-charge and several others allegedly associated with the handling, collection and transportation of donation money.

Names of arrested persons are- Tinnu Yadav, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Avinash Shukla, Manish Yadav, Subhash Srivastava, Karunesh Pandey and Ramshankar Mishra. The accused have been booked on charges relating to criminal breach of trust, cheating, criminal conspiracy and other offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Investigators suspect that the alleged misappropriation took place over a period of time through manipulation of the donation collection process.

Case Titles: Narendra Kumar Goswami v. Union of India and others; Ajay Kumar Rai and another v. Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Theerth Kshetra Trust; Sudhakar Singh v. Union of India and others