Sabarimala Ashtabhishekam Fund Misappropriation Case: Kerala High Court Directs State To Conduct 10-Yr Audit, Submit Report In Three Weeks

The Kerala High Court on Friday (May 29) directed the State Audit Department to conduct audit into the conduct of Ashtabhishekams in Sabarimala temple during the past 10 years and submit its report within 3 weeks.

The Division Bench of Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V. and Justice K.V. Jayakumar was considering a suo motu petition initiated based on a report by the Sabarimala Special Commissioner alleging misappropriation of funds by the Administrative Officers of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) while procuring 3 out of the 8 items required for conducting Ashtabhishekam ritual.

During the last hearing, State Audit Dept was directed to conduct an audit of the accounts relating to the Ashtabhishekham for the past 10 years and to give a report as to whether the Devaswom Board has incurred any loss on account of the same. It had also directed the State, Police Co-ordinator, the TDB, the Devaswom Commissioner, Executive Officer and Chief Vigilance & Security Officer, to file a report of the purchase of pooja materials under the Store Purchase Rules to ensure transparency and the relevant rules and guidelines which are in vogue to regulate the same.

However, today, it was submitted by the Standing Counsel for the TDB that some confusions have arisen as directions were issued to produce copies of the order before the Court as well as to handover the same to the audit department. It was also stated that TDB's counter-affidavit is being filed.

The Government Pleader representing the Audit department submitted that once the records are handed over, a detailed audit cab be conducted and a report can be prepared within a period of 2 weeks. Taking note of the submissions and referring to its earlier order, the Court observed:

"In that view of the matter, we direct the Standing Counsel to hand over the documents to the Audit Department forthwith so as to enable the Audit Department to carry out the audit in terms of the directions and place the same before this Court within a period of 3 weeks from today. In the said order, directions were issued to the Devaswom Board to file a detailed statement on various aspects as mentioned in the said order, including the tenure particulars of the officers, a comprehensive report regarding the procedure presently employed for the procurement of pooja materials and the acts and conducts of one Sunil Kumar. The Standing Counsel submits that a report is being filed. To peruse the counter affidavit, post next Wednesday."

The case will be taken up on June 3 (Wednesday).

Case No: SSCR No. 14 of 2026

Case Title: Suo Motu v. State of Kerala and Ors.