HC adjourns final hearing on plea against temple Act amendment

Cuttack: Orissa high court on Wednesday adjourned the final hearing to four weeks on a PIL questioning the legal validity of amendment to the Shri Jagannath Temple Act, 1954.The two judge-bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice Savitri Ratho deferred the hearing after the state govt informed the court that the draft rules for the amended provision of the Act are ready and it will take another four months to finalise them.Amendment of Section 16 (2) of the Act had come under scrutiny with the HC issuing notice to the state govt on a writ petition filed by one Dilip Kumar Baral challenging it on Mar 15, 2022. Petitioner’s counsel Anup Kumar Mohapatra opposed the framing of rules when the PIL was pending before the court.In an interim order, the HC had said, “All actions taken pursuant to the amendment of Section 16 (2) of the Act would be subject to the outcome of the writ petition.”The court had also directed the state govt to file a counter affidavit indicating the details of the transactions entered into pursuant to the amended section.On June 24, Shree Jagannath Temple Administration’s (SJTA) administrator (Niti) Jitendra Kumar Sahoo filed an affidavit recording the relevant transactions in compliance of the court’s Mar 2022 order. The dispute centres around the petitioner’s contention that the amendment gives more power to the temple managing committee at the cost of undermining the power of the state govt.

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