Appoint full-time administrator for Puri temple: SC

BHUBANESWAR: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Orissa government to depute a chief administrator for managing the affairs of ancient Shri Jagannath Temple at Puri and passed a slew of directions for enabling peaceful ‘darshan’ and providing amenities to devotees.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said “considering the overall situation and the facts, we direct the State Government to depute full time Chief Administrator, not by way of additional charge forthwith”.

The court on Monday recommended 22 new proposals, including accommodation facility for 60,000 pilgrims and building schools and colleges for children of temple servitors, but warned that no one has the right to obstruct the rituals of the deity.

The bench also termed the behaviour of a servitor in December last year, when he locked up the sanctum sanctorum alleging misbehaviour by the police, “unpardonable”. “There is absolutely no right with anyone to delay the opening of the Temple for even a minute. There was total maladministration and chaos writ large from the aforesaid incident. There is no disciplinary control available,” a three-judge bench of SC headed by justice Arun Mishra said while asking the temple’s chief administrator to take appropriate steps against such servitors.

NEWDELHI:THE Indian Newspaper Society on Monday expressed concern over the recent order of the Andhra Pradesh government that empowers departmental secretaries to institute cases of defamation against the media for references deemed objectionable.

“While it is the right of the government to seek redress for wrong or defamatory reportage, giving the bureaucracy such sweeping powers will have a chilling effect on the media and vitiate the atmosphere in which the press should function in a vibrant democracy,” the INS, which is an independent body that authenticates circulation figures of newspapers and periodicals, said in a statement.

Seeking revocation of the controversial order, the organisation appealed to the Andhra Pradesh government to revisit its decision, so that the “rights of the press are not circumscribed, and the media is able to perform its tasks fearlessly”.

The government had decided to empower secretaries of various departments to file defamatory cases against all types of media without evidences.