Gold plating of world's richest temple shelved, SC told

The decision to reconsider the move was taken in deference to the sentiments expressed by thousands of devotees and the Andhra Pradesh High Court's judgement quashing the earlier resolution passed by the TTD for the gold plating exercise, the board told the apex court.

The TTD said it had no powers to carry out the exercise of drilling thousands of holes in the inner recess adorning the deities in view of the restrictions imposed by Section 2(a) of the Ancient Monuments and Archeolgoical Sites and Remains Act, 1958.

By a resolution dated September 20,2008, the TTD decided to carry out gold plating of the temple's sanctum sanctorum, which was fiercely opposed by several devotees on the ground that it was not only against scriptural tenets but posed a grave threat to the 11th century shrine.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly, which recorded the undertaking made by counsel Sridhar Potaraju, directed the Board not to take any decision on gold plating without prior permission of the apex court.