Apex court refuses to interfere with rituals at Ujjain’s Mahakaleshwar

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to interfere with the rituals being observed at the historic Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain while dealing with the issue of protecting the ‘Jyotirlingam’ at the ancient temple.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalilt said it has neither interfered with the merits of the case nor the religious ceremony performed at the temple in Madhya Pradesh. All it had done by its order was to incorporate all suggestions given by parties towards implementing the resolution passed by the temple management committee.

The temple, in its resolution, permitted each devotees to use a fixed amount of water measuring 500 ml in a small pot for ‘Jalabhishek’ (worship by offering water). This water should be taken from the Reverse Osmosis (RO) machine installed during the religious congregation of Simhastha in 2016, the resolution stated, for which a connection was to be provided near the sanctum sanctorum.

The apex court has been dealing with the issue of protecting the ‘Jyotirlingam’, a devotional representation of Lord Shiva at the ancient Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga temple at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh.

It had earlier taken strong exception over some display boards set up at the temple which attributed new worshipping norms to directions issued by of the top court. The bench warned media that any misinterpreting or misreporting of its order will invite contempt action from Court.

The apex court had on April 5 said that its concern was only about the protection of the ‘lingam’ at the ancient temple, while observing that it was for the temple management to discuss and decide what religious rituals should be followed and how worship should be performed there.

It had said the court had never given any direction to implement new norms of worship, which were actually submitted by temple management committee in consultation with an expert committee set up by the court.

On August 25 last year, the apex court had constituted an expert committee to survey and analyse the Jyotirlingam and prepare a report stating the rate at which the deterioration in its size was taking place and measures to prevent it. The committee was also directed to study other structures and the temple and submit recommendations on steps for overall improvement of entire premises and its preservation.