Four women move HC, seek security to pray at Sabarimala
The court issues notice to the state govt seeking response on maintenance of law and order
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Four women, including two lawyers, on Wednesday moved the Kerala High Court seeking police protection to offer prayers at Sabarimala that has been at the centre of a row after the Supreme Court order lifted a ban on women of menstruating age from entering the shrine.
It comes even as the Travancore Devasom Board (TDB), which administers the Lord Ayyappa temple, decided against filing a review petition against the verdict and instead said it would file a report only if the apex court asked for it.
In their petition, advocates Maya Krishnan (37), and H Rekha (45) and Jayamol PS (28) and Jalajamol PS (35), said they wanted to offer prayers at the temple in accordance with the recent apex court verdict.
They also named Sabarimala tantri (chief priest) Kandararu Rajeevaru, Bharatiya Janata Party state president PS Sreedharan Pillai and Congress state president Mullappally Ramachandran among 14 other respondents, saying they were instigating violence in the name of an “unfounded ritual” held unconstitutional by the highest court of the country. They also sought a declaration from the state government that it was duty-bound under the Constitution to maintain law and order. The petitioners said the respondents had instigated people to prevent women of productive age from entering the temple. They alleged that the respondents had indulged in a malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings.
A division bench comprising justices P R Ramachandra Menon and Devan Ramachandran issued notices to the state government seeking its response.
Reacting to the development, BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai said, “We are not scared of cases. Will deal with them as and when required”.
Leader of the Opposition, Ramesh Chennithala blamed Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan for the “mess”. “He is still blaming devotees and others to get out of the crisis. He will have to pay a heavy price for his irresponsible acts. We are not worried over cases or threats,” Chennithala said.
Meanwhile, the TDB’S decision not to file a review petition comes a day after the Supreme Court listed for hearing a bunch of 20 review pleas for hearing on November 13.
The Special Commissioner for Sabarimala M Manoj had on Tuesday filed a report in the Kerala High Court voicing apprehension that there could be “frenzied protests and turbulence” during the three-month-long annual pilgrim season beginning November 17 over the apex court verdict.”during the festival season there will be large crowds in places connected with Sabarimala pilgrimage and these type of protests by frenzied devotees and protestors may lead to crowd turbulence and stampede which may lead to injuries to pilgrims, police and others and loss of life,” Manoj said.
TDB member K P Sankara Das said the board would file a report only if the apex court asked for it.
Das told journalists the board would submit its response if the Supreme Court sought its views while considering the review petitions filed already. “There is no relevance of a review petition by the TDB now,” he said. DEHRADUN: More than 900 students of the National Institute of Technology in Pauri Garhwal district have gone back to their homes in protest over their demand for a “permanent and safe campus”.
The 932 students left the campus after their 22-day protest, which began on October 4, did not evoke any favourable response from the authorities. The students want the present campus, along the busy National Highway 58 at Srinagar in Garhwal town, be shifted to a safe location in the plains. The authorities said they have approached the central government for its intervention.
The students boycotted classes in protest after two students met with an accident on the highway while they were on their way to a college laboratory on the campus.
Students say anyone could have been the victim. “Raising our voice against threat to life is more important than thinking about our career right now,” Sathyam Rajpal, a second-year student back at his home in Ghaziabad told HT over phone.
Vaibhav Tiwari, a second-year student of electronics and communication engineering, said they left because the authorities were not paying heed to their demands. Another student from the computer science department, Anjum, said the present location does not provide them with facilities that an engineering student should have access to.
The students have also written to President Ram Nath Kovind and Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
Under the Centre’s 11th fiveyear plan, Uttarakhand got one of the 10 notified National Institutes of Technology in 2009. The college began admitting students in 2010 at a makeshift campus at the Government Polytechnic College.
RB Patel, director in-charge of the NIT, said, “The college has no role to play in this protest; only the state government can take some decision and help us.”
NIT registrar Col Sukhpal Singh said they can only ask the students to return. “The college authorities have repeatedly approached the ministry of human resource development (headed by Prakash Javadekar) and the state government, apprising them of the situation. We are requesting them to take the necessary action...,” he said.
Parents have also come out in support of the students in their protest. Some of them have even written to the MHRD. One of them, Sadhana Singh, wrote to the ministry saying they do not feel safe sending their children to a college where they are not safe.
Ramesh Mamgain, father of a first-year Btech student, said, “I got my son admitted to this college instead of Pant Nagar University because the NIT holds national importance.