Delhi HC nixes plea against DDMA's Chhath order

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Wednesday dismissed a plea challenging the DDMA's decision prohibiting devotees from performing Chhath Puja on the banks of the Yamuna.
"This is just a publicity interest petition. Covid 19 hasnt totally vanished its still there..it is a misconceived petition.." Justice Rekha Palli said, pointing out that the petitioners were unable to show that devotees are entitled to or can insist to perform the puja only on the Yamuna banks.
"They have not given any explanation as to why they did not approach the respondents if they were desirous of having additional designated sites in the area even after the list of designated sites was made public," the court said. It said the petitioner society, which claim to organise various social and religious functions, were free to approach the Delhi government to earmark additional sites in Sonia Vihar and Wazirabad area but even after November 6, when list in their sites was made public, they made no move.
Infringement of right of worship, says plea in HC
Chhath Puja has already commenced today and even otherwise no orders for alternative sites at this stage can be passed," the court observed, underlining that the AAP government's decisions "to take care of religious sentiments of all devotees." "Even though Covid-19 has still not fully disappeared, the government has taken steps to ensure that devotees can perform Chathh Puja."
The petitioner organisations challenged the Delhi Disaster Management Authority's October 29 order, which permitted the Chhath Puja celebrations in Delhi but certain restrictions were imposed. According to the petitioner, authorities unreasonably prohibited the devotees from performing Chhat Puja on the banks of the Yamuna without assigning any reason in their notifications/orders. Delhi government told the court that 800 designated sites are created in the national capital for performing puja and there are seven designated sites in the vicinity of where the petitioners wish to perform the rituals.
The petitioners - Chhath Puja Samaj Sudhar Samiti, Sonia Vihar, and Bihar Mitra Sangathan, Karwal Nagar - said that notifications have caused infringement to their fundamental right of worship.
The petition said the environmentalists have claimed that the festival of Chhath is one of the most eco-friendly religious festivals that should be used to spread "the message of nature conservation".