SC notice to Kerala temple committee after decision to discontinue ancient ritual

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to examine a plea against the Kerala High Court order in favour of the administration of the Guruvayur Sri Krishna temple in the state which decided to discontinue the ancient ritual of “udayasthamana pooja” on ekadasi.

A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Rajesh Bindal issued the notice to the Guruvayur Devaswom Managing Committee, Kerala government and others on the plea against the December 7 order.

The top court, however, said the chart of daily pooja displayed on the temple’s website should not be altered.

“We cannot intervene now. We will issue notice to the other side. Prima facie we are satisfied,” the bench said.

Udayasthamana pooja refers to the various worship conducted in temples throughout the day from sunrise (udaya) to sunset (asthamana).

The temple administration recently decided not to conduct the ritual on ekadasi, citing difficulties over crowd management and the desire to allow more devotees time for darshan.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by P C Harry and other members of the family with priestly rights in the shrine, contending that “ekadashi” was the most important festival of the temple and while it was an admitted fact that the age-old udayasthamana pooja was being conducted since 1972 on ekadasi day, in reality it was being performed from even before.

The petitioners said the rituals were streamlined by Adi Sankaracharya and it was believed any disturbance or deviation would impair the manifestations of the divine force or “Chaitanya”.