Maha Samprokshanam: Consult Agama pandits, Hyderabad High Court tells Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams
HYDERABAD: A division bench of the High Court on Tuesday directed the authorities of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams to take the view of Agama Advisory Council on the aspect of live telecast of the 9-day Maha Samprokshanam from August 9 to 17 this year, and to inform the same to the court by July 26.
The bench, comprising chief justice TBN Radhakrishnan and justice V Ramasubramanian, passed this order on a plea by B Anil Kumar from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh and Bhupendra K Goswami from Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat seeking directions to the TTD to allow live telecast of the above programme on TV channels.
The petitioners, in the PIL filed earlier, sought CBI probe into the activities of the TTD and also the untraceable antique jewellery of Lord Venkateswara. Now they have filed a miscellaneous petition seeking live telecast of “Maha Samprokshanam” announced recently by the TTD.
When the matter came up for hearing, the petitioners’ counsel told the court that in the recent past several doubts arose among the people about the functioning of TTD officials. The officials have decided to close the temple for nine days during Maha Samprokshanam and to switch off the CCTV cameras during the event. The officials have got the responsibility to publicise the activities taking place during the said programme and there was a need to allow live telecast of the programme to remove doubts from the minds of the people, he added.
Reacting to these submissions, the bench wondered that when there was a ban on taking a photo of the deities as per the Agama Shastras, how the court would direct the authorities to telecast the programme live. The temple priests would follow the procedure of the Agama Shastras and perform rituals accordingly, it said.
At this stage, the petitioners’ counsel brought to the notice of the court that devotees were allowed during the last Maha Samprokshanam in 2006 but now the TTD decided against allowing devotees. The decision created doubts in people, he added. Intervening, the bench made it clear that there would not be any judicial review of the rituals performed by the priests as per shastras.
The standing counsel for TTD told the court that there had been a ban on taking photos of the deities for the last several decades and the question of live telecast of the programme would not arise. Even there was no telecast of the rituals performed to the “Moola Viraat” on the SVBC channel run by the TTD. The Agama shastra priests would decide the rituals of Lord Venkateswara and there was an Agama Advisory Council to make suggestions on issues, he added.
The bench then directed the TTD authorities to take the opinion of the advisory council on the issue and also the procedure adopted during the 2006 Maha Samprokshanam and posted the matter to Thursday for further hearing.