The controversy over the ban on devotees to have Nabajauban Darshan of the sibling deities at Puri, after they recuperate from a temporary sickness this year, has now reached the Odisha High Court.
Adjudicating a PIl on the issue, a division bench of vacation judges on Wednesday issued notices to all the respondents arraigned in the writ petition, including the State Government and the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).
Justices Kumari Sanju Panda and Dr DP Choudhury issued notices to the respondents asking them to file counters within two weeks and the matter would come up for further hearing after the counters are filed, said the petitioner’s counsel Ashok Mohapatra.
A city-based social activist Abhisek Das has approached the High Court seeking judicial intervention alleging that the decision to ban the devotees from Nabajauban Darshan of the deities is “unlawful’ and “arbitrary”.
“The Nabajauban Darshan of the deities is an age-old practice of the temple ritual and tradition and the devotees cannon be deprived of such a tradition by the whims and caprice of the administration,” the petitioner contested.