The Supreme Court on Friday has allowed prayers to be offered, for two days only, at three Jain temples in Mumbai – in the city’s Dadar, Byculla and Chembur neighbourhoods – as part of the community’s eight-day Paryushan festival that began August 15.
Individuals can offer prayers on Saturday and Sunday only, the court said, adding that congregations remained banned under Covid management guidelines in force nationwide.
Prayers can be offered, the court added, as long as SOPs (standard operating protocols) in place during the lockdown are followed, including use of face masks and social distancing.
The court also made it clear that the interim order could not be viewed as a precedent to allow congregations at other places of worship, and said that permission for prayers at other Mumbai temples would not be given. Referring to the popular Ganpati festival, it said “case-to-case” permission was needed from the state disaster management authority.
“This (the interim order) is not intended to apply in any other case, particularly for any large congregation. We are referring particularly to the kind of congregations that take place during Ganpati festival in Mumbai and other places,” the court said.
The Shri Parshwatilak Shwetamber Murtipujak Tapagacch Jain Trust had moved the Supreme Court asking for permission to pray at temples during the Paryushan period.
The Maharashtra government had opposed this, saying that large crowds were against the interest of the state during a pandemic and would present a difficult situation to manage.
Represented by the Congress’s Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the state pointed out it had cancelled other religious festivals, such as the Pandharpur Wari, due to the pandemic.
In response the Chief Justice of India said: “This is a dynamic situation and is fact-intensive. If you can enforce SOP and obtain an undertaking, why shouldn’t the activities be held?”
“This is exactly the choice we had with the Odisha Rath Yatra. If we can ensure social distancing, and people do not gather, then having the rath is not damaging,” the court said.
“We were forgiven by Lord Jagannath, we will be forgiven again,” the Chief Justice added.
In June the Supreme Court said the Rath Yatra in Puri could be conducted in a restricted manner, with curfews and closed entry points. At that time Chief Justice SA Bobde said the court was only considering the Rath Yatra in Puri and nowhere else in the state.
In today’s argument the court pointed out that if entry of people into temples could be restricted (and replicated in other areas), there was no reason why all places of worship could not be re-opened.
“If it is the matter of five people at a time in one temple and this format can be replicated in all the places, then we are not opposed to expanding this scope of this to beyond Jain temples – why not Hindu temples, why not Muslim shrines?” the court asked.
“We find it very strange that every activity they are allowing involves economic activity. They are willing to take the risk if money is involved but if it religious then they say there is Covid and we can’t do this,” the court declared.
Places of worship remained closed across the country as part of the Covid lockdown guidelines. However, citing stress on the economy, commercial and economic activities have been re-opened and re-started in a phased manner.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing the Jain trust in the top court today, said his clients would follow SOPs and that the permission sought was only for temples in Mumbai.
To this the Maharashtra government said: “If this prayer is allowed, tomorrow there may be a grievance raised that one community is favoured”.
However, in a self-deprecating moment the top court poked fun at itself, responding: “Tomorrow there will be allegations that Supreme Court only favoured one community”.
Maharashtra is the worst-affected state in this coronavirus pandemic, with over 6.43 lakh cases so far, of which over 21,300 are deaths and nearly 1.63 lakh are active cases.
On Thursday state government data showed nearly 15,000 new cases had been reported.
