Publish vacant Sabarimala Padi Pooja dates on website, Kerala HC tells TDB

Kochi: High court has directed the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) to publish information on vacant Padi Pooja dates (a ritual involving the pooja of the 18 holy steps at Sabarimala Sannidhanam) on its website to improve transparency and help devotees access available opportunities.A bench of Justices V Raja Vijayaraghavan and K V Jayakumar issued the directive while closing further proceedings in a suo motu case initiated on a report submitted by the Sabarimala special commissioner, which indicated certain malpractices in the booking of Padi Pooja at the temple. Earlier, HC had directed the chief vigilance and security officer of TDB to take possession of the Padi Pooja booking registers and produce them before it in a sealed cover along with a report.The report stated that no further irregularities have been identified recently, except for an incident in which two individuals secured Padi Pooja bookings by furnishing false or fictitious addresses and allegedly transferred those bookings to third parties for higher consideration, as mentioned in the special commissioner's report. The registers produced before HC revealed that bookings for Padi Pooja have already been completed for the period from March 2026 up to Sept 2040, with approximately 705 persons having secured bookings. It was also found that about 207 days during this period have no Padi Pooja bookings, even though the temple remains open and the ritual can be conducted on those days.Noting these facts, HC directed TDB to frame and implement an appropriate mechanism for reallocating the vacant slots in a phased and transparent manner so that the pending bookings up to Sept 2040 may be cleared, as far as possible. HC also directed that, with the concurrence of the temple tanthri, TDB should examine the feasibility of conducting more than one Padi Pooja on eligible days, if ritually permissible, to accommodate more devotees and reduce the waiting period.Additionally, HC directed TDB to publish information relating to vacant dates for Udayasthamana Pooja, Ulsava Bali, Kalabhabhishekam and Sahasra Kalasam on its website.