The Odisha High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the State Government and the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) to file their counters in response to the writ petitions filed by the two temple servitors who were placed under suspension by the SJTA last week.
Holding the two Daita servitors Kashinath Dasmohapatra and his son Jaykrushna responsible for the disturbances and delay in the Brahma transfer of the deities on June 15-16, the SJTA Chief Administrator has placed them under suspension pending initiation of disciplinary proceedings. They were also issued show-cause notices.
Terming the SJTA actions as “arbitrary” and seeking to quash the suspension orders and the show-cause notices, the father-son duo has approached the High Court.
The suspended Daitas also in separate miscellaneous petitions have prayed the court to grant stay on the operation of the suspension orders in view of the ensuing Rath Yatra of the deities.
A Single-judge Bench of Justice Dr AK Rath taking up the pleas of the petitioners for analogous hearing issued notices to the respondents asking them to file their counters soon and posted the matter to be adjudicated next week, said the petitioners’ counsel Biren Shankar Tripathy.