Cuttack, Nov. 21: Orissa High Court today appointed an accredited engineer as commission of inquiry to assess the progress in renovation of Jagmohan (prayer hall) of the Jagannath temple in Puri and ascertain veracity of the Archaeological Survey of India's claims related to status of repairs undertaken so far.

The court issued the order after ASI (Bhubaneswar circle) superintending archaeologist H.A. Naik, in compliance with its order, submitted an affidavit indicating progress of repairs by November 17.

It was monitoring the Jagmohan renovation as part of adjudication of a PIL. Cuttack resident Abhisek Das filed the PIL on May 19 seeking intervention for effective and timely completion of the Jagmohan repair.

The division bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi said: "Neither the court nor the petitioner counsel has the expertise to ascertain the veracity of the affidavit. So, we appoint advocate Nagendra Kumar Mohanty, who is also an accredited engineer, as an independent commission of inquiry to visit the temple and examine whether the progress stated by the ASI in the affidavit is correct."

The court fixed Saturday for the commission of inquiry to visit the temple premises and directed the Puri collector and ASI officials to render assistance to him for examining the progress. The court expected the inquiry report to be submitted in a sealed cover without any interaction with the media and fixed December 7 as the next date of hearing on the PIL.

The petition was taken up first on June 8.