Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has directed the Odisha government to place the inquiry report on the missing keys of the Ratna Bhandar of the Shree Jagannath Temple before the State Assembly in its ensuing session.

During the hearing, the Advocate General informed the court that the inquiry report into the missing or misplaced keys of the inner chamber of the Ratna Bhandar would be placed before the Cabinet and subsequently before the Assembly for a conscious decision.

Earlier, the Odisha government had constituted the Justice Raghubir Dash Commission to probe the disappearance of the keys. The commission had submitted its report to the State government. The court was told that the report was to be placed before the Cabinet formed after the 2024 Assembly elections.

The court, however, made it clear that there cannot be any delay in complying with the statutory requirement of placing the report before the Assembly.

The High Court also directed the government to complete within three months the exercise of tallying the fresh inventory of ornaments and valuables of Lord Jagannath with the benchmark inventory prepared in 1978.

The court said the 1978 inventory would serve as the reference document to verify whether all jewellery and precious items recorded earlier match the present stock.

The court noted that repair and conservation work of the Ratna Bhandar had already been completed by the Archaeological Survey of India. During the repair work, the jewellery and valuables were shifted to temporary strong rooms and later restored to their original place under the supervision of a newly formed Inventory Committee.

Following the reconstitution of the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee in August 2025, a Ratna Bhandar Sub Committee was formed. The committee prepared a draft Standard Operating Procedure for inventorisation in consultation with temple officials, the Puri Collector and the Superintendent of Police.

The draft SOP received approval from the High Level Committee and the Gajapati Maharaja and is currently under consideration by the State government.

Stressing that no complacency can be shown in matters relating to the temple’s valuables, the High Court directed the State to show urgency in completing the process and listed the matter for review after three months.