Cuttack: Orissa High Court has endorsed the renovation and repair work undertaken at the Puri Jagannath temple's prayer hall known as Jagmohan.

The two-judge bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi gave the approval after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the public works department submitted affidavits on Wednesday. The court considered the affidavits, along with report of the engineer, Nagendra Kumar Mohanty (also an advocate).

The issue reached the high court with Cuttack resident Abhisek Das seeking intervention for effective and timely completion of repair of Jagamohan by way of a PIL. The court had since been monitoring the renovation work undertaken by the ASI.

In their affidavits, ASI (Bhubaneswar circle) superintendent H.A. Nayak and works chief engineer (buildings) Satya Ranjan Sethi indicated that renovation work inside the Jagamohan was completed on October 20.

Mohanty submitted a report on Thursday, indicating that refurbishing work of the corbels of the roof ceiling of Jagmohan undertaken after installation of stainless steel portal frame to support the cracked stone beams inside the prayer hall "have been completed in all respects".

While endorsing it, the court shifted its attention to the roof ceiling of the corridor near the Jay Vijay Dwar and that above the Garuda Stamba inside the Natmandap of the temple and sought a status report from the ASI by November 15.