SC Declines Permission For Muharram Procession, Says Community May Be Targeted For Spreading Virus

New Delhi: The Supreme Court bench led by CJI SA Bodbe, on Thursday, denied permission for carrying out Muharram procession across the country.

“If we allow this, there will be chaos and one particular community will be targetted for spreading COVID-19. We don’t want that,” said CJI Bodbe.

Elaborating further, he said, “The difficulty is you (petitioner) are asking for a general order for the occasion in the whole country.”

Meanwhile, the petitioner cited the example of Rath Yatra in Puri, to which the CJI said, “You are giving Jagannath Puri example, there it was in one place and one set route. We could assess the risk and pass the order for only Puri. We as a Court cannot risk the health of all the people. If you had asked for one particular place, we could have assessed the risk.”

Furthermore, the apex court made observations that even the states have not been made a party in the matter. Alternatively, petitioner was asked to approach Allahabad High Court for permission to carry out a procession in Lucknow since a chunk of the people of the Shia community resides there.