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The Bombay High Court has allowed devotees to visit the Vitthal temple in Girgaon and seek blessings from the compound outside on the occasion of Ashadhi Ekadashi on Thursday, June 29, after it was told that the temple was in a dilapidated and dangerous condition. The court passed an order in a plea seeking that devotees be allowed to visit the temple for darshan on Thursday.
To ensure there is no risk to the life and liberty of any visitors, the court directed that at a point in time, only 10 people shall gather in the compound and none shall enter the mandap or the garbhagriha (inner sanctum). Only the officiating priest is allowed to enter the mandap and darshan is permitted between 7 am and 5 pm on Thursday.
A division bench of acting Chief Justice Nitin M Jamdar and Justice Arif S Doctor was on June 27 hearing an interim application by Pravinchandra D Dhotre in a writ plea seeking direction to allow devotees to visit the temple. The devotees in a writ plea had told the court that the temple had been around for many decades and devotees used to visit it every year during the Ashadhi Ekadashi festival.
The devotees had claimed that since 2014, when a developer came into possession of the land surrounding the temple, he had been denying access to the devotees.
The high court in July last year had passed an order allowing visitation during the festival with conditions, recording that the structure appeared to be in poor condition.
The lawyer for the developer argued that the temple in question is in a dangerous and dilapidated condition and that the monsoons have set in.
The bench asked the senior inspector at V P Road Police Station to ensure that the present order is complied with by providing sufficient police force at the location. “The police shall not permit more than ten persons at any given point of time in the compound and shall ensure that ten persons shall exit the compound immediately after ‘darshan’ so as to allow the next batch of ten persons to enter and so on and so forth,” it noted.
It also said that the main door of the temple mandap and ‘garbhagriha’ shall be open from 7 am to 5 pm.
“This order is issued without prejudice to rights and contentions of parties and specifically at the risk of visitors who avail of darshan and without prejudice to contention that respondent developer (who is in possession of land surrounding the temple for redevelopment project) cannot be liable for any untoward incident at site,” the court said.
The court also asked Dhotre to ensure that appropriate medical facilities are kept in readiness at the vicinity where access to the premises is available. The applicant also stated that if any mishap takes place and any of the devotees are injured, the applicant can be held responsible. “According to us, this statement is too general and needs to be specific,” the bench noted.
Thereafter, Dhotre’s lawyer submitted that he will take care of the medical expenses in case any aid is required if any devotee is injured and to translate this commitment into action, he will deposit an amount of Rs 25,000 in the high court registry within three working days
Dhotre also gave an assurance that medical expenses up to Rs 50, 000 would be borne by him. “This, however, does not mean that we relieve the statutory authorities of their duty of providing the medical care,” the bench noted and disposed of the interim application.
The court will hear the main writ petition on July 8.
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