Kerala govt moves SC against HC order increasing daily pilgrims to Sabarimala shrine

Source:-https://www.dnaindia.com

In its bid to control the spread of the new mutant strain of coronavirus, the Kerala government has moved the Supreme Court (SC) against the Kerala High Court’s (HC) order to increase the number of daily pilgrims at the Sabarimala temple to 5,000.

“The state Chief Secretary had moved the apex court challenging the High Court order, raising the number of permissible daily pilgrims at the Sabarimala Temple to 5,000,” standing counsel of the state government G Prakash said.

In its judgement on December 18, the Kerala High Court disposed of a batch of writ petitions, while directing the government of Kerala to increase the daily number of pilgrims visiting the Sabarimala shrine during the festival season from 2,000 to 5,000. The festival season began on December 20 and will come to an end on January 14 in 2021.

The state government sought an immediate stay on the order based on its health advisory of December 14. The government moved the Supreme Court challenging the HC order on grounds of risks to public health, administrative difficulties, and the concerns regarding the new coronavirus strain.

While increasing the number of pilgrims to 5,000 per day, the HC failed to consider the revised health advisory of December 14 that limited the number of pilgrims to 2,000 per day, the petition said.

“As per this report, the situation in the Pathanamthitta district is grave and therefore it recommended measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also reported in the media that a new COVID-19 virus with a new strain has been detected in England and considering that the government of India stopped all flights to and fro from England and India,” the petitioner said.

To control the COVID-19 pandemic during the Sabarimala temple festival from December 20 to January 14, the government of Kerala constituted a high-level committee to consider all aspects and to fix the number of pilgrims who can be permitted per day to visit the temple, the petition said.

“Increase in the number of pilgrims will put the police personnel and the officials of the health department in great strain and difficulty in controlling the pilgrims of this magnitude,” the petition said.