Supreme Court Declines Request To Merge Ayodhya Donation Investigation With Title Litigation

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea seeking to connect its monitoring of an investigation into the alleged misappropriation of donations received at the Ram temple in Ayodhya with the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri land dispute. The court made it clear that the two matters are separate and that its oversight of the investigation should not be interpreted as reopening or examining the earlier title dispute.

The court was dealing with a probe into allegations concerning the alleged embezzlement or misapplication of funds received by the Ram temple trust. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to investigate the allegations. The Supreme Court said the SIT is answerable and accountable to the apex court in connection with the investigation it is monitoring. The bench also made clear that the SIT would submit its status report directly to the Supreme Court.

This clarification places the investigation under the court’s direct monitoring and establishes the mechanism through which the judges will receive updates on the progress of the probe. While rejecting the attempt to link the investigation with the title dispute, the Supreme Court allowed petitioners and other bona fide public-spirited individuals to suggest measures that could make the SIT’s functioning more “accountable, transparent and effective”.

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The court’s observation leaves room for suggestions on the manner in which the investigation is conducted without expanding the proceedings into the separate question of ownership of the disputed Ayodhya site. The Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri land dispute was settled by the Supreme Court in its landmark November 2019 judgment, which paved the way for the construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site. The present proceedings, however, concern allegations relating to donations and trust funds and are not a reconsideration of the title dispute or the court’s earlier judgment. The distinction made by the Supreme Court is significant because the Ayodhya temple project emerged from the resolution of the long-running land dispute.

The court’s latest proceedings are instead focused on allegations surrounding the handling of funds and the effectiveness of the investigation into those allegations. The petitioners and other public-spirited persons can now place suggestions before the court regarding the SIT’s functioning. Such suggestions may relate to ensuring transparency, accountability and effectiveness in the investigation, while the SIT remains responsible for carrying out the probe and reporting its progress to the Supreme Court. The court’s decision therefore keeps the investigation into the alleged misapplication of Ram temple trust funds within a separate legal framework.

It also removes any ambiguity about the scope of the Supreme Court’s intervention: the bench is monitoring the investigation into the financial allegations and is not reopening or reviewing the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri title dispute. The SIT’s status report will provide the Supreme Court with an account of the progress of the investigation. Further proceedings are expected to focus on the allegations concerning the temple trust funds and on ensuring that the investigation remains transparent and accountable under the court’s supervision.

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