Rath Yatra: Review Plea Not Feasible After Cabinet Decision, Says Puri Gajapati; Chattisa Nijog Meeting At 6 PM

Picture Credit: Santosh Das

Puri: The Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Body will discuss with Chattisa Nijog, Mukti Mandap members and the Shankaracharya at 6 pm to lay out a roadmap for conducting Rath Yatra rituals inside Jagannath Temple premises here.

“After the State Cabinet decision to follow the Supreme Court order, I don’t think it is feasible any more to file a review petition seeking reconsideration of its decision on cancelling the annual festival of the sibling deities,” Puri Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb told the media after the emergency meeting of the managing committee at Niladri Bhakta Niwas in Puri.

Stating that in extraordinary situations, extraordinary decisions have to be taken, the Gajapti said that arrangements will be made in accordance with the religious tradition of the temple in consultation with servitors and the Shankaracharya as the ‘record of rights’ mentions nothing about it. 

The first servitor of Lord Jagannath said that the committee had proposed holding the festival without devotees after its May 30 meeting. “The state government, keeping the bigger perspective amid the pandemic in mind, perhaps did not accept it and told the SC that 10 to 12 lakh people may congregate during Rath Yatra in Puri,” he said.