Plea moves to SC seeking stay on holding Odisha's rath yatra festival

A plea has been moved in the Supreme Court by an NGO seeking direction to stay the holding of the Rath Yatra festival, which is scheduled to commence on June 23 in Puri, Odisha. Rath Yatra is a festival associated with Lord Jagannath which is held in Puri every year spanning for 10-12 days, where lakhs of devotees gather from across the world.

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vikas Parishad has filed a petition in the Supreme Court asking it to stay the holding of 12 days Rath Yatra festival which is scheduled for 23rd june at Puri, Odisha, in the wake of corona virus. It seeks directions to the government to not give any permission for the festival.

The petitioner states that holding the festival amid corona virus will be in "mass violation of fundamental right to life and liberty of the devotees of Lord Jagannath as enshrined under Article 21 of the constitution of India since the holding of the Rath Yatra at this present juncture will put the lives of millions of devotees who may attend Rath Yatra at risk and harm".

Further the trust contends that the impact of religious congregation during corona is well known after the cases had risen due to a religious gathering of Talibaghi Jamaat and it won't be safe to conduct the festival when there has been an exponential rise in the covid positive cases due to the influx of the migrants and other people into the state.

For the entire month of April only 1 case was reported in Puri which increased to 85 in May and now the total number of cases amount to 108 and the district is being treated as the high risk zone by the state government.

The petitioner states that the state has already taken decisions on holding the festival and construction of chariots are in full swing since 26th april when Akshya Tritya was celebrated and rituals leading up to the car festival like Snana Purnima was also held on 5th June. This proves that the state intends to celebrate the festival which is in violation of Home Ministry's orders prohibiting religious functions till 30th June.

Citing a media report further, the trust said that the Odisha government had to deploy 10,000 security personnel for an estimated 10 lakh devotees which means that large gathering will take place during the Rath Yatra "impossible to maintian social distancing".