Kerala High Court Orders Independent Re-evaluation of Sabarimala Ghee Probe

Overview

• The High Court directed the VACB to appoint a senior officer to re-examine all records and re-evaluate the vigilance report, with a comprehensive report due within four weeks.
• The original VACB probe found a shortfall of about ₹17.14 lakh from sales of 16,628 ghee packets at Sabarimala for the period November 17 to December 27, 2025.
• The VACB named 43 Travancore Devaswom Board employees as accused and treated the loss as collective responsibility while recommending closure of criminal action against most because individual accountability could not be fixed.
• The court said the VACB report appeared to minimise the findings and ordered the fresh review to decide whether offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita are made out.
• The order, issued after the bench reviewed the probe on Tuesday, could lead to criminal prosecutions or stronger departmental measures and will also test for wider systemic accounting failures in temple collections before the next hearing on July 15.