Supreem Court orders filming of Padmanabhaswami temple treasure unearthing

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed videography and photography of the ongoing unearthing of treasure trove from the vaults of Sri Padmanabhaswami temple in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram district.

A bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and A.K. Patnaik also proposed the appointment of a curator of a museum to preserve the treasure being unearthed from the ancient temple.

The apex court's directions came during the hearing of a petition by the heir of erstwhile king of Travancore Raja Rama Varma, challenging a Kerala High Court ruling of January 31 this year, ordering takeover of the assets and management of the shrine by the state.

The court also barred the observer, supervising the unearthing of the temple's treasure, from interacting with media on the process, saying the matter was related to the state. After brief proceedings, the court posted the matter for further hearing on Friday.

On May 2, on a petition filed by Rama Varma's elder brother Marthanda Varma, the apex court had passed an interim order staying the high court's order for takeover of the management and assets of the temple. The SC had directed that "there shall be a detailed inventory of the articles, valuables and ornaments found from the temple's treasure trove".

Key of vault missing

Meanwhile, uncertainty continued on Wednesday over the opening of the last of the six chambers of the temple. The secret vaults of the temple have already yielded ancient treasure worth over Rs 1 lakh crore.

According to sources, the key to vault B, which is believed to contain even bigger treasure, has been missing. The temple authorities have sought help of some traditional locksmiths to get the duplicate keys made. But that also seemed a difficult task as the vault was too ancient.

The royal family of Travancore, the traditional custodians of the temple, has been worried over the use of powerful machines to break open the vault of the temple. It feels that the hammering of the ancient vault could even shake the temple's foundation. The royal family however said that it would cooperate with the Supreme Court's directive to open the vault.