No Policeman Should Enter Puri Jagannath Temple With Weapons, Shoes: SC

No Policeman Should Enter Puri Jagannath Temple With Weapons, Shoes: SC 

The Supreme Court on today took note of the October 3 violence at Puri’s Jagannath temple during a protest against the introduction of a queue system for devotees and said no policeman should enter the temple with weapons and shoes. 

During the 12-hour bandh called by a various socio-cultural organisation nine policemen were injured in violence. 

A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta was informed by the Odisha government that 47 persons were arrested in connection with the violence in the temple and the situation was under control now. 

The counsel appearing for an organization, which sought to intervene in the matter, claimed before the bench that policemen had entered the temple with guns and boots during the violence.

The dawn-to-dusk shutdown in the seaside town called by Sri Jagannath Sena turned violent as a mob barged into the 12th-century shrine, uprooted barricades erected on Baisi Pahacha and near Singhadwara and ransacked the office of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), they had said. 

A temple official had said that the queue system was introduced on an experimental basis and a review would be done as locals and servitors opposed it. 

(This story has not been edited by Our Legal World and is from livelaw and PTI feed).