The Kerala High Court has directed the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) to establish a comprehensive, systematic, and preferably digitised inventory management system for all consumable and non-consumable assets maintained at the Sabarimala Sannidhanam and allied establishments.It further directed the Chief Engineer and the Executive Engineer of the Sabarimala Development Project to ensure that every statutory requirement, financial rule, and procedural safeguard governing public procurement is scrupulously complied with, before finalising purchases.A Division Bench of Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V. and Justice K.V. Jayakumar passed the directives while considering the approval for the contract to supply 1,000 double-decker mild steel cots for daily wage staff deployed at the Sannidhanam and the queries raised by the Audit department in this regard. The total estimate for the purchase was ₹1.66 crore, for which the TDB had granted administrative sanction.One of the objections was that though the cots were to be supplied by a manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, neither its photographs nor detailed technical specifications were placed before the Ombudsman. Moreover, the Ombudsman had noted that the tender process was initiated at the eleventh hour.During the hearing, the court observed that such a method of maintaining inventory cannot be accepted in an institution of the stature and magnitude of the TDB. It directed the Chief Engineer and the Executive Engineer to ensure that the procurement (of beds) was effected strictly in accordance with the approved technical specifications, the provisions contained in the Store Purchase Manual, and other public procurement norms. It also directed the TDB to complete the digitisation which is under way as per the Enterprise Digital Transformation Programme, and to ensure maintenance of all inventory and asset management registers. Published - July 16, 2026 08:51 pm IST