'Govt can't interfere in religious affairs of Puri temple'

In a landmark judgement, Odisha High Court today asked the state government to honour the views of Shankaracharya of Puri Govardhan Peetha on not allowing devotees to climb the chariots of three presiding deities of Jagannath Temple during Rath Yatra.

The government is duty bound to implement the decision of the Shri Jagannath Temple Managing Committee based on the opinion of Shankaracharya and has no business to interfere in the matter, the court said.

"The implementation of the decision is the duty of the state government", the HC observed.

Meanwhile, supporting the Shankaracharya's view on banning the devotees to climb the chariots during the Rath Yatra, the Gajapati Maharaja of Puri, Dibyasingha Deb said, the state government has no right to interfere with the religious affairs of the Jagannath temple. He hoped that the decision of the High Court pronounced will be implemented by the state government in letter and spirit. "He (Shankaracharya of Govardhan-peeth) has the authority to decide the religious matters relating to Jagannath temple and going by the decisions of the Supreme Court, neither the government nor any other body has any jurisdiction to review, modify or in any manner interfere with his decision on religious matters," Deb told media persons.

According to long established tradition and practice of Jagannath temple, Shankaracharya has the right to offer his advice regarding rituals in the Puri temple. Non-compliance of Shankaracharya's decision by the state government will not only violate Section 15(1) of the Shri Jagannath Temple Act, 1955, but also infringe the constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion enshrined in Articles 25 and 26 of the constitution, he pointed out.

The row over allowing devotees to climb onto chariots of Lord Balabhadra, Lord Jagannath and Devi Subhadra during Rath Yatra had snowballed into a major controversy with the Daitapati priests of Puri temple strongly pleading in favour of continuation of this practice in contravention of Shankaracharya's views.

The state government, in a quandary to thrash out an amicable solution to this religious tangle, had formed a high level committee comprising Law minister Arun Sahu, Puri legislator, Maheswar Mohanty, MP, Pinaki Mishra, bureaucrat Suresh Mahapatra, Special DG Sanjeev Marik to look into the matter.

The High Court order, meanwhile, has presented an escape route to the government to wriggle out of the situation. "We will abide by the High Court order on this sensitive issue," said state law minister, Sahu.