After HC order, Odisha government declares to catalogue jewelleries of Shree Jagannath Temple soon

After the Orissa High Court directed the State Government to complete the exercise of tallying the jewellery found from Ratna Bhandar, treasury of Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri, with the 1978 catalogue, Chief Minister Mohan Majhi-chaired high level meeting on Monday (February 16, 2026) announced to shortly inventory the precious metal.

As per the information presented before Odisha CM, all preparatory procedures required for the counting and inventory have been fully completed.

“The complete repair and conservation work of both the outer and inner Ratna Bhandar has already been finished. The entire work was carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India over 95 days, involving 333 hours of work. At present, both the temple administration and the State government are fully prepared to begin the counting and inventory process,” said a statement issued by Chief Minister’s Office.

“The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the counting and inventory has been prepared by the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee. The process will commence after receiving government approval. The entire exercise will be conducted with complete transparency under strict security arrangements,” it further said.

The last inventory was conducted in 1978. In the current process, the assets will be verified against the 1978 list and a final updated inventory will be prepared. The entire process will also include photography and the preparation of a digital catalogue.

A division bench of Orissa High Court comprising Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Judge Justice M.S. Raman recently directed to complete the process of tallying and come up with inventory report within three next three months.

As per the last inventory carried out 45 years ago, the Ratna Bhandar had more than 1.2 quintal of gold and 2.2 quintal of silver. In addition to this, there is sizeable amount of gold ornaments which are in regular use in the temple. For obvious reasons, the State government had shown ‘reluctance’ to open the treasury of Shree Jagannath Temple.

The court observed that, “it is no gain saying that the inventory of the jewelleries and valuables of Lord Shri Jagannath which was conducted way back in the year 1978 shall be the bench mark document in order to ascertain the inventory undertaken by the committee subsequently constituted by the State Government, whether all the jewelleries and valuables of Lord Shri Jagannath, which were found at the time of inventory conducted in the year 1978 tallies with the inventory done by the present committee.”