Alka Verma –
Published On: November 16, 2021 at 19:30 IST
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of India stated that a Constitutional Court cannot interfere in the day to day conduct of a Temple.
Adding to this, the Court stated that it can only interfere in matters such as temple administration not following rules or regulation or any illegal activity is conducting.
“Can we interfere in rituals of temple? How to break a coconut or how to do aarti?”, asked the Court.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana, and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli made these statements while replying to a Petition filed a devotee of Tirupati Tirumala Temple.
The Petitioner in his Plea mentioned about the irregularities taking place in the daily conducts of Tirupati Temple.
The Petitioner also challenged an Order of Andhra Pradesh High Court wherein the High Court dismissed the Plea of the Petitioner which was filed to sought directions for Tirupati Temple to change its rituals.
The Apex Court, in the similar manner, after listening to the Petitioner, dismissed his Plea.
“The relief sought by the Petitioner is in the nature of interfering in day to day affairs of temple, which cannot be gone into by a Constitutional Court. If ritual or Seva isn’t performed according to established practices is a question of facts to be gone into by the Trial Court by appreciating the evidence,” observed the Court.
However, the Bench assured that if there are any irregularities in the rules and regulations, then the Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam needs to respond.
“At the same time other than the rituals, if there are any other issues of administration not properly performing and ignoring rules ®ulations, or indulging in any other violations, these are the only areas where we can ask Devasthanam to clarify the issues,” stated the Bench.
At the end, the Court disposed of the Special Leave Petition, after allowing the Petitioner to file the grievances related to irregularities in rules and regulations and ordered the Temple administration to respond about the same within 8 weeks.
Also Read: Supreme Court grants one-week time to clarify irregularities at Tirupati Temple