The Orissa High Court today issued notices to the state government and to Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) to file their counters in response to the writ petitions filed by two temple servitors who were placed under suspension.
Taking up the petition by the priests for analogous hearing, Justice A K Rath issued notices to the respondents asking them to file their counters soon and posted the matter for adjudication next week.
Two ‘Daita’ servitors – Kashinath Dasmohapatra and his son Jaykrushna were held responsible by SJTA for the disturbances and delay in secret ‘Brahma Parivartan’ ritual in connection with the ‘Nabakalebara’ of the deities on June 15.
The SJTA chief administrator placed them under suspension pending initiation of disciplinary proceedings and also issued show cause notices.
Terming SJTA’s actions as “arbitrary” and seeking to quash the suspension orders and the show-cause notices, the father and the son had approached the HC.
The suspended Daitas in separate miscellaneous petitions had also prayed to the court to grant a stay on the operation of the suspension orders in view of the ensuing Rath Yatra of the deities.
Prasanta Patnaik