Orissa HC refuses to interfere with state government's Rath Yatra decision, dismisses six pleas

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Wednesday dismissed six petitions seeking intervention in the State government's decision not to allow observing of Rath Yatra at places other than Puri.

While Rath Yatra committee of Bhatli in Bargarh district filed one petition, the other petitions were filed by sevayats of Baladevjew temple in Kendrapara, popularly known as Tulasi Kshetra. The petitions had sought permission to allow celebration of car festival by pulling of chariots with limited number of sevayats and police personnel by following COVID-19 guidelines. Representations for it were submitted to the Chief Secretary on June 11.

But no decision had been taken on them so far, the petitions said. Advocate Amit Prasad Bose and Akshaya Kumar Pandey argued the case for the petitioners and contended that both Bargarh and Kendrapara were safe zones with negligible number of COVID infections in comparison to Puri.

So, there is no valid reason for not allowing Rath Yatra in the two places. The government’s decision amounted to discrimination between the Puri shrine and other Jagannath temples, the petitions contended.

But the two-judge bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice SK Panigrahi declined to interfere against the government’s decision citing the Supreme Court order related to Rath Yatra-2020 and disposed of the petitions.