‘Priests can’t refuse puja to lower castes’

NAINITAL: The Uttarakhand high court on Thursday barred priests in temples across the state from refusing to perform religious ceremonies sought by worshippers they considered low-caste, and added that any properly trained and qualified person can be appointed as a priest in temples, irrespective of caste.

The court also ordered that all persons, irrespective of their caste, be permitted to enter any temple throughout Uttarakhand without any discrimination. . According to the court, the system’s failure to “accord and protect the dignity, honour and human rights of the persons belonging to lower castes has led to large-scale conversions.”

The division bench of justices Rajiv Sharma and Lok Pal Singh gave these directions in response to a public interest litigation filed by Pukhraj & others, followers of Sant Ravidas, a 15th century mystic, poet and saint revered by Dalits and others in 2016. The order was delivered last month, but its copy was released on Thursday.

The PIL said high-caste priests should be instructed to perform religious ceremonies on behalf of members of the lower castes, and argued that the “time has come to consider appointing any person as a priest in the temple”.

Citing various Supreme Court orders and references from books, the high court noted in its order that “high caste priests cannot refuse to perform religious ceremonies on behalf of persons belonging to lower castes”.

The bench said the apex court had held that “there is no justification for permitting only Brahmins to carry out rites and rituals as priests. “The custom of restricting functions of priests to Brahmins only, is violative of human rights, human dignity, concept of social equality and the specific mandate of the Constitution and cannot be considered an integral part of the Hindu region”, the bench observed.

Hailing the verdict, spiritual guru-turned -politician Ravi Das- acharya Suresh Rathore, who is also the Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Jwalapur, Haridwar, said: “It is a landmark decision which will herald a new era in religious ritual structure of our civilisation, which is unique in the world. Sant Ravidas preached the removal of social divisions of caste and gender, now the court too has followed suit.”

“We don’t deny pilgrims who hail from scheduled caste, schedule tribes.the high court order pertains to only such places where differentiation takes place, so too much should not be taken out of the decision — that Dalits face bias in Uttarakhand temples, shrines or ghats,” said Anshul Shrikunj, a priest.