NEW DELHI: With an aim to enable peaceful darshan by devotees, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the Odisha Government to depute a full-time chief administrator for managing the affairs of Jagannath Temple at Puri.
Passing slew of directions, a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said, “Considering the overall situation and the facts, we direct the State Government to depute full-time Chief Administrator, not by way of additional charge forthwith.”
The court said, “A large number of pilgrims visit the temple every day and it is a pious duty to provide proper darshan in a systematic manner and take care of the aged, the infirm and children.”
“We direct the temple administration and the chief administrator including the State Government to prepare a roadmap with the help of experts for having proper darshan by the devotees/pilgrims and to implement it effectively and to ensure that there is no commotion so that everybody is able to have darshan peacefully without any obstruction by anybody,” the bench said.
The bench also said it is for the experts to suggest what system can be devised without disturbing the rituals to be performed in temple and passage required for it and thereafter temple management committee and administration have to consider it.
It also took serious note of certain incidents which have been pointed out in the report relating to the misbehavior with the women, snatching of ornaments and directed the temple administration and the temple police to ensure that there are dedicated personnel to tighten security inside the temple, to ensure that no such incident takes place in the temples and no misbehaviour is meted out to women.
The bench said what rituals are to be performed is not for the court to decide, but when temple exists due to the deities, the deities cannot be permitted to be disregarded by non-performance of the nitis, puja and ritual in the traditional form as observed by Shankaracharya of Govardhan Math, Puri.
“Let the Temple Management Committee invite Srimad Jagadguru Shankaracharya and other stakeholders including the erstwhile ruler Gajapati and ensure that nitis, puja and rituals are performed as prescribed punctually every day without any remiss and obstruction,” it said.
The top court also expressed serious concern over an incident last year when one Sevak, who was entrusted with the duty of opening the door of sanctum sanctorum at 4.30 am for daily puja/nitis, did not open the door on the ground of his personal issues with the police administration of Puri town and the door was opened at 4.30 pm.
The bench also passed directions with regard to maintaining hygiene where ‘prasadam’ for the deity is being prepared, accommodation for devotees, record of rights of the immovable and movable assets of the temple and schools for the children of servitors.
It directed for disbursal of Rs 5 crore deposited by Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) with apex court in some other case for utilisation in construction of school, which would also include children from other sections of people.
List of directions
Depute full-time Chief Administrator for the temple.
Prepare a roadmap for proper darshan by the devotees.
Deploy dedicated personnel to tighten security in the temple.
Nitis, puja and rituals of the deities cannot be obstructed.
Maintain hygiene where ‘prasadam’ for the deity is prepared.