The erstwhile Royal family of the Travancore today urged the Supreme Court not to order the opening of the secret chamber B (also known as chamber 6) in the cellars of the Sree Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram of Kerala.

“Opening of the sixth chamber is not advisable and video graphing or photo graphing of the temple treasure is against the temple traditions and practices,” said the royal family members in their application submitted to the apex court bench consisting of justices Raveendran and A.K. Patnaik.

The court, which earlier directed the experts’ committee to take a decision on opening the said vault, expressed its surprise when told that the committee has left the decision to the temple chief priest.

“We told the experts committee to take a decision on opening the chamber 6. How can it outsource the decision?” asked the division bench in surprise.