Kerala High Court’s strong comment on crowd control by Sabarimala guards

Kochi:

The Kerala High Court on Monday took serious note of the manner in which a guard appointed by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) controlled the movement of devotees visiting the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala for the Makaravilakku rituals on January 14.

A bench of Justices Anil K Narendran and PG Ajith Kumar directed the board to furnish details of the devaswom guard concerned and the action taken against him, if any.

“The manner in which the Devaswom guard by name ‘Arun’ controlled the movement of pilgrims in front of the Sreekovil through the first line was in gross violation of the directions issued by this Court in the Sanjeev Sastram judgment.” said the bench.

The video of the incident was widely circulated on TV channels.

The incident took place when he was controlling a huge crowd of devotees at the temple after adorning Lord Ayyappa with the sacred gem ‘Thiruvabharanam’ on January 14.

During the course of the proceedings, the bench noted that in another petition – Sajeev Sastram v. State of Kerala – it directed the guards appointed by TDB and the police officers on duty at Sopanam to control the movement of devotees through the barricades in an appropriate manner Was. So that there is least inconvenience to the pilgrims.

However, on January 14, after the deity was decked with ‘Thirubharanam’, “certain issues came up before Sreekovil at Sannidhanam on crowd management,” the bench said.

It further said that the manner in which the guards acted was in violation of the orders of the High Court on crowd management.

The court also sought reports from the Special Police Officer of Sannidhanam and Sopanam Officer regarding the incident.

The amicus curiae told the bench that the Sabarimala special commissioner would also file a report on the incident.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)