LUCKNOW, July 7 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Monday declined to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a CBI probe and CAG audit in connection with the alleged embezzlement of donation money at Ayodhya's Ram temple in view of a similar plea pending before the Supreme Court. A substantially similar matter is under consideration before the Supreme Court, so this PIL is not maintainable before the high court, a division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla said in a July 6 order. At the very outset of the hearing, additional advocate general Vinod Kumar Shahi informed the bench that the Supreme Court, while hearing a similar petition filed by Ajay Kumar Rai, had on June 29 directed that the matter should be listed after the summer vacations. He placed before the court a copy of the writ petition. "On a perusal of the writ petition specially the relief clause and comparing it with the relief clause herein we find that reliefs prayed in this writ petition are substantially similar to the one prayed in the aforesaid writ petition," the high court said. "In view of the aforesaid, we see no reason to entertain another writ petition on the same subject under Article 226 of the Constitution of India at Lucknow when the Supreme Court is already seized with the matter and order has been passed on 29.06.2026 for listing of the writ petition after the partial court working days. We dispose of this writ petition accordingly," the court added. Mohit Ashok, a local lawyer who filed the PIL, sought directives for the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the matter and register a case. It also requested that the Comptroller and Auditor General audit the cash, gold, silver and other valuables received as offerings in donation boxes at the temple. The petitioner had made the Centre, the principal secretary of the state government's vigilance department, the CBI director, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, and the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, through its chairperson, opposite parties....