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

After the Orissa High Court directed the State Government to conduct census of the jewelery found in Ratna Bhandar, the treasury of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, with the 1978 catalogue, a high-level meeting held on Monday, February 16, 2026, chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Majhi, announced that the precious metal would be inventoried shortly.

According to the information submitted to the Odisha CM, all the necessary preparations for counting and inventory have been completed completely.

“All repair and conservation work of Ratna Bhandar, both external and internal, has already been completed. The entire work has been carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India, covering 333 hours of work over 95 days. Currently, both the temple administration and the State government are fully prepared to start the census and inventory process,” a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said.

He further said, “The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for counting and inventory has been prepared by the Shree Jagannath Temple Management Committee. The process will begin after getting the government’s approval. The entire exercise will be carried out with full transparency under stringent security regulations.”

The last inventory was made in 1978. In the current process, assets will be verified with the 1978 list and an updated final inventory will be prepared. The whole process will also include photography and preparation of the digital catalogue.

A division bench of the Orissa High Court, comprising Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice MS Raman, recently directed to complete the counting process and prepare an inventory report within the next three months.

According to the last inventory conducted 45 years ago, Ratna Bhandar contained more than 1.2 quintals of gold and 2.2 quintals of silver. In addition, there is also a large amount of gold ornaments used regularly in the temple. For obvious reasons, the State government had shown ‘reluctance’ to open the Shree Jagannath Temple treasury.

The court observed: “It is no gain to say that the inventory of jewels and valuables of Lord Shri Jagannath carried out in 1978 will be the reference document to ascertain whether the inventory subsequently undertaken by the committee constituted by the State Government is in conformity with the inventory made by the present committee of all jewels and valuables of Lord Shri Jagannath found during the inventory conducted in 1978.”