“Priests ought not to obstruct communication between devotees and God,” said the Delhi High Court on Friday as it suggested measures to manage the heavy footfall at the Kalkaji temple.
Justice J. R. Midha suggested a “systematic arrangement” for darshan based on the lines of Jhandewalan temple in Karol Bagh and the Vaishno Devi shrine.
Systematic darshan
“The court is of the view that the daily darshan of devotees should be managed in a systematic manner as in other temples, for example in Vaishno Devi shrine where two single-person queues are permitted and each devotee is permitted an unobstructed darshan ,” said Justice Midha.
The court said that the Jhandewalan temple had separate queues for devotees.
The court proposed the suggestions while hearing an appeal moved by the priest of the temple, Sat Dev, seeking to restrain his two widow sisters from performing puja and collecting offerings. The parties have now arrived at a settlement where the priest would give a cheque of ₹6 lakh each to both his sisters as share of the offerings collected during the sewa bari from February 7 to March 7. Also, the women will continue to perform puja.
The cheque would be post-dated, Sat Dev’s counsel B. L. Wali said.
A settlement was arrived at after the high court pulled up both parties on Wednesday for making a “joke of the deity”. The court had also suggested appointing a court officer to collect all offerings and distribute it based on the court’s decision.
Structural changes?
As the court asked the parties to consider making structural changes to ease darshan , it was informed that arrangements of darshan were looked after by the local police station. The court has now asked the SHO (Kalkaji) to be present at the next hearing.
