Kerala High Court Summons Audit Director To Explain 17-Year Delay In Finalising Audit Of Travancore Devaswom Board Administration

The Division Bench of Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V. and Justice K.V. Jayakumar also ordered the Director to place a comprehensive statement making clear the particulars of the audit objections pending, its present status, reasons for the delay in resolving the same, steps taken to ensure timely completion as well as the timeframe for completing the audit for 2025-2026.

The Court was considering a Devaswom Board Audit Report (DBAR petition) registered in 2011 seeking permission to extend the annual audit report of the TDB for the year 2008-2009.

“The audit pertains to the financial year 2008-2009. More than seventeen years have elapsed since the close of the audit period, and yet the audit process remains incomplete. Such an extraordinary delay defeats the very purpose of statutory audit, which is intended to ensure timely financial scrutiny, accountability, transparency, and corrective action in the administration of Devaswom institutions. The prolonged pendency of audit objections for nearly two decades raises serious concerns regarding the efficacy of the audit mechanism and the manner in which audit compliance is being monitored,” the Court remarked.

The Court noted that as per Section 32 of the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act (1950), there is a mandate for annual auditing of the accounts of the TDB and for the Board to maintain regular accounts of all receipts and disbursement relating to the institutions administered.

The provision also requires the auditor to submit report before the High Court indicating irregularities, illegalities and failure to recover money or property due to the TDB and any loss of money or property due to misconduct. The Court would then forward the report to the Board for rectification and compliance is to be reported.

In 2011, another Bench had referred the audit report to the Ombudsman and directed the Board to enter appearance and file its response. Subsequently, many responses were submitted by the Board Secretary and later, in 2020, it had agreed to close all audit objections except seven.

Since there has been an inordinate delay in the case, the Court wanted to get a detailed explanation for the officer concerned. It ordered:

“we direct the Director, Devaswom Audit, Kerala State Audit Department, to appear before this Court…and explain the reasons for the inordinate delay in finalising the audit and closing the outstanding objections… The Director shall also specifically explain the circumstances under which the matters remain pending for such an unusually long period before the learned Ombudsman. The Director shall therefore clarify the necessity for repeatedly obtaining responses from the Board, the nature of the issues that prevented the finalisation of the audit objections, whether any deficiencies are ordinarily noticed in the replies furnished by the Board, and the reasons why the audit process could not be concluded despite the passage of several years and multiple opportunities afforded to the parties concerned. The Director shall, in his report, state whether the delay is attributable to any systemic deficiencies in the audit mechanism, inadequacies in the maintenance of accounts, lack of cooperation on the part of the Board, procedural bottlenecks within the Audit Department, or any other administrative or statutory impediments.”

The case is posted to June 24.

Case No. DBAR No. 2 of 2011

Case Title: The Joint Director v. The Secretary

Click to Read/Download Interim Order