Kerala High Court Expresses Satisfaction With KITFRA's Proposal To Digitise Temple Accounts, Seeks State & Devaswom Board's Response

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday (February 11) expressed prima facie satisfaction on the proposal put forth by the Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Ltd. (KITFRA) to facilitate digitisation of temple accounts.

The Division Bench of Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V. and Justice K.V. Jayakumar directed the State Government and the Travancore Devaswom Board to respond to the documentation.

“Having considered the statement and materials placed before us by KITFRA, and upon prima facie satisfaction regarding the conceptual and architectural framework, we are of the view that the project proposal may be taken forward, subject to necessary inputs, refinements, and approvals from the State Government as well as the Travancore Devaswom Board,” the Court remarked.

The Court had ordered digitalisation of accounts of all 1,250 temples under the Travancore Devaswom Board following reported embezzelment of ₹40 lakh from a petrol pump run by it at Nilakkal, a base camp of Sabarimala pilgrims.

During the previous posting, KITFRA, which has been entrusted by the Travancore Devaswom Board to facilitate digitisation of temple account, had undertaken that it would place a detailed statement including the proposal and timeframe required for the exercise before the Court.

Accordingly, a detailed statement was put forth before the Court which also interacted with the KITFRA officers to be informed that the reference model proposed is Information Kerala Mission's Kerala Solutions for Managing Administrative Reformation and Transformation (K-SMART).

The Court was also told that around 6 months' time would be required to prepare and finalise the requisite technical and bid documents, and only thereafter can the process of tendering to software development agencies be done.

The Bench then asked if the developed model adopted for the K-SMART platform can be adopted for the present project as well. KITFRA officers answered in the affirmative and told that in such a case, the preliminary work and system development activities can be speeded up.

With respect to the financial implications for the project, the Court was told that the total cost incurred for the K-SMART platform was around ₹70 crores, and that the development cost for the proposed project is likely to be much lower, since certain modular components and technological frameworks of K-SMART can be adapted here.

After recording the submission, the Court asked the Devaswom Board and State to respond. The case is posted to February 18 for further consideration.

Case No: DBAR No. 2 of 2025

Case Title: Joint Director v. The Secretary and Ors.

Click to Read/Download Interim Order