Cuttack: The Orissa High Court will hear the petition regarding reopening of Jagannath Temple in Puri before ‘Nagarjuna Besha’ after the petitioner files a rejoinder to the state government reply.
The state government has already filed its reply to the petition on reopening of temples. The court said it would conduct the hearing after the rejoinder to the counter-petition of the government is filed.
In its reply, the government has stated that since the sanctum sanctorum of the 12th-century shrine is very narrow, it would be difficult to manage the crowd which may lead to spread of the COVID-19. Besides, it is not possible to deploy police in all the temples across the state for crowd management, it added.
Since the ‘Nagarjuna Besha’ is a rare ritual of the deities which will be observed on November 27 this year, the petitioner prayed to the court to direct the government to reopen Jagannath Temple so that the devotees can have the darshan of the deities.
