Cuttack: The Orissa High Court Wednesday refused to intervene in the state government’s order permitting Rath Yatra only in Puri in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice SK Panigrahi rejected at least five petitions seeking the HC intervention for the organisation of Rath Yatra at Kendrapara and Bhatli with strict adherence to Covid-19 protocol.
The state government had earlier issued an order allowing Rath Yatra only in Puri while putting restrictions on the organisation of the annual chariot festival at other places in Odisha.
The order had created resentment among locals of Kendrapara and a few other places in the state. The locals and the priests of Baladevjew temple had urged the state government to allow Rath Yatra at Kendrapara.
BJP workers also staged dharna at Kendrapara Collector’s office and all tehsil offices in the district seeking permission for the chariot festival of Lord Baladevjew with strict adherence to the Covid-19 protocol.
The locals and BJP workers claimed that there is a close link between the chariot festivals of Puri Srimandir and Lord Baladevjew temple. Besides, the Rath Yatra of Baladevjew is associated with the religious sentiment of the people, they argued. A few priests of Baladevjew temple had also sought the help of Puri Shankaracharya Nischalananda Saraswati in conduct of Rath Yatra at Kendrapara.
Subsequently, the temple priests and a few others had filed four petitions in the HC seeking the court intervention into the issue.
“We will soon move the Supreme Court on the issue,” said petitioners’ lawyer Akhaya Kumar Pandey.
