NE LEGAL BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, JUNE 18
Close on the heels of the Supreme Court staying Puri Rath Yatra, a PIL was filed in the Gujarat High Court on Thursday seeking a direction to the state government to not allow a temple trust to take out the annual Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad considering the coronavirus pandemic in the city.
Shri Jagannathji Mandir Trust in Jamalpur area of Ahmedabad organises the annual rath yatra, a major religious event in Gujarat which attracts thousands of devotees.
Incidentally, priests from the temple and Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel had performed the first ceremony of the annual Rath Yatra- Jal Yatra- fest on Sabarmati riverfront on June 5.
The state government has not yet given a green signal for the procession, slated for June 23, but Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja on Wednesday said it has not yet denied nod either for the event.
The PIL, filed by journalists and activist Hitesh Chavda through his lawyer Aum Kotwal, is likely to come up for hearing in a day or two.
The PIL comes even as the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed this year’s historic Puri Rath Yatra starting from June 23, saying it can’t be allowed in the interest of public health and safety of citizens in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Petitioner Chavda has raised serious concerns regarding the procession as it passes through some of the localities of Ahmedabad that are among the worst-affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The procession is organised annually by Shri Jagannathji Mandir Trust, which has been mentioned as one of the respondents in the PIL.
Lakhs of people run the risk of getting infected by the coronavirus if the permission is given for the procession in which hundreds of thousands of devotees from the city as well as other parts of Gujarat and outside participate, the petition said.
In such a case, “all the works done by the authorities, civil societies and citizens to fight the Leviathan like COVID-19 will go in absolute vain and bring us to a rather despicable and horrific situation,” it warned.
“The entire procession passes through the route that is a buffer zone near the containment zones and that in itself is ground enough to disallow any permission.
“Police, administration, and medical staff might unknowingly and unintentionally prove to be super-spreaders as they would come in contact with the gathering,” the PIL said.
The route of the yatra passes through several cluster containment zones and micro-containment areas, it said.
Apart from directing the government to “disallow, quash and reject the permission preferred by the respondent trust considering and appreciating just and proper position of law, the PIL sought formation of an expert committee to look into the “sensitive issue” considering the pandemic situation.
Ahmedabad is the worst-hit city due to coronavirus in Gujarat.
