Cuttack: Orissa High Court on Friday sought to know the present status of a formal complaint lodged a month ago with the vigilance director against the chief minister, law minister and senior officials - in connection with mismanagement of ornaments received in form of gifts or donations for the Puri Jagannath temple.

The court was hearing the state BJP vice-president Samir Mohanty's petition seeking direction to the vigilance director to register a case on the basis of a written complaint lodged by him on June 19.

In his petition, Mohanty said that though the allegations in the complaint made out cognisable offences under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, the director vigilance "is neither registering a case nor taking any steps for an inquiry into the allegations in the complaint".

In his complaint, Mohanty said the Jagannath temple foundation committee was the custodian of the ornaments received from devotees as gifts or donations for the temple. He alleged that 3.7kg old received as donation or gift were missing and sought a CBI probe into it.

"After a preliminary hearing, the division bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi asked state counsel Bishnu Pradhan to take instructions from the government and be ready within 10 days to inform the court about the complaint's status," Mohanty's counsel Pitambar Acharya said.

Mohanty alleged that in clear violation of the Shri Jagannath Temple Act rules, ornaments received as donations or gifts for the Jagannath temple were kept in nazir khana and later in State Bank of India locker instead of the temple's ratna bhandar.

Although the chief minister is the chairman of the foundation committee, 18.62kg of gold ornaments and 116kg of silver ornaments received as donation or gift were kept in the nazir khana instead of the treasury.

Later, about 14.56kg of gold was kept in the SBI locker while there is no record of the rest 3.7kg gold received as donation, Mohanty alleged in his complaint.

The petition contended that since the chief minister was the committee chairman, he was accountable to the people of the state and he could not escape the responsibility.

The complaint was lodged against chief minister Naveen Patnaik, law minister Pratap Jena, other committee members, secretaries of law and finance, Puri district collector and the Jagannath temple chief administrator.