SC To Hear Modification Pleas On Rath Yatra Tomorrow! Details Here

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: Multiple petitions, seeking recall/ modification in the stay order on Rath Yatra, have been listed for hearing in the Supreme Court at 11 am on Monday.

The single-judge bench of Justice S Rabindra Bhatt is scheduled to hear the petitions at virtual court number 3.

A total of 17 petitions have been filed for a partial modification to the earlier order of the apex court. Eight among them have been filed from Odisha, seeking permission to allow the chariots of Lord Jagannath and His siblings to roll on Bada Danda (Grand Road) in Puri on June 23.

On Thursday, the SC stayed the annual sojourn of the sibling deities across Odisha citing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Supreme Court lawyer Sarthak Nayak told the media that the single-bench judge, however, cannot decide on whether to hear these petitions as a three-member division had given the verdict earlier. After the petitions are listed, the division bench will decide whether these will be heard or not, he added.

“In case, the hearing is done and the court feels that certain modification is necessary, the stand of State government will become crucial as it has not filed any review or modification petition,” the lawyer said.

The matter will come up again before the top court even as the order to halt the Rath Yatra has sent shock waves among the devotees as the tradition had remained unbroken for 284 years despite calamities and pandemics. This has led to Chairman of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration and Gajapati of Puri Dibyasingha Deb and Shankaracharya of Gobardhan Peeth Swami Nischalananda Saraswati expressing the need for reconsideration of the SC order and holding of Rath Yatra with adequate preparations to meet COVID management norms.

On Sunday, two more modification petitions were filed by Kharanshu Sekhar Das, Parthasarathi Saraf and B Dandapani Patra of Odisha.

Five petitions were filed separately by Aftab Hussein, Jagannath Sanskruti Janajagaran Manch, president of the Chhattisha Nijog of Puri Jagannath temple Janardan Pattajoshi Mahapatra, secretary of Daitapati Nijog Durga Dash and executive chairperson of Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad Badrinath Patnaik, on Friday and Saturday.

All the petitioners have sought a partial modification in the earlier order of the SC for holding Rath Yatra only in Puri, the original abode of Lord Jagannath, by following all COVID-19 guidelines.