MV Nair to head Kerala temple treasure panel

NEWDELHI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a directive to replace C V Ananda Bose, former director of National Museum, with conservationist M V Nair as the new chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed expert panel to evaluate the treasure found in the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple vaults. The Kerala Government had filed a plea requesting to remove Bose from the post as he had retired from service and replace him with Nair, who was also part of the expert panel. The state government had earlier revoked a government order replacing Bose with Nair after it got legal advice to approach the apex court.  A Division Bench consisting of Justice R M Lodha and Justice A K Patnaik accepted the plea and also accepted Additional Chief Secretary K Jayakumar as the new nodal officer to liaise between the committee and the government.The court also severely criticised the state government and the temple administration for not abiding by its directives.The court observed that the state government had failed to arrange adequate security cover for the temple vaults where the treasures are kept and also did not provide an office near the temple premises for the expert panel.The court also criticised the state government for not providing the Rs 25 lakh earmarked for security purposes. Meanwhile, M V Nair said the  expert committee would meet soon for scientific evaluation of the treasure from vaults A, C, D, E and F. He expressed the hope that the state government would provide the necessary help on time as directed by the Supreme Court.