Jagannath temple case: SC asks amicus to visit shrine to assess issues facing devotees

The Supreme Court Tuesday asked senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, who is assisting it as an amicus curiae in a matter related to administration of Jagannath temple in Puri, to visit the shrine to assess the ground reality there.

A bench headed by Justice A K Sikri said this after the counsel appearing for Odisha argued that the amicus should visit the temple and himself see the situation there.

When the bench asked Kumar about it, he said he would visit the temple on February 22 and 23 and apprise the court.

The top court is dealing with a plea which has highlighted the difficulties faced by the devotees at Jagannath temple and their alleged harassment or exploitation by the 'sevaks' of the temple.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Kumar said one of the major issues at the temple was the lack of proper crowd management and absence of queue system for the devotees.

To this, the state counsel said that as the architecture of the shrine was different it was not easy to have a "typical queue system" for the devotees there.

Referring to the architecture of the sanctum sanctorum there, the counsel said, "The amicus can go there and see the situation. The problem which the state is facing today cannot be visible unless the amicus goes there and sees it himself. We are not opposing the queue system."
When one of the advocates appearing in the matter raised the issue of 'sevaks', Justice Sikri observed, "We are telling you with our own experience that there is exploitation (of devotees)."