SC firm on pyramid height at 20 ft

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, August 24

The Supreme Court today refused to increase the cap on the human pyramids’ height beyond 20 feet for tomorrow’s “dahi handi” festival in Mumbai even as the organisers pleaded that the restriction would take the sheen off the religious sport falling on Janmashmatami.

A Bench headed by Justice Anil R Dave said it had banned “dahi handis” above 20 feet and participants below 18 years of age only to ensure that there was no casualty.

The court had passed the order last week on a plea for steps to make the event safe. As many as 156 children were injured in 2011 while trying to reach the handis by climbing human pyramids, it had noted.

But some of the organisers rushed to court again, pleading that the cap on height would make “dahi handi” a non-event as the onlookers and participants would lose interest in it. There was no point in putting such restrictions on an event being held for decades, senior counsel Rajiv Dutta pleaded while arguing for one of the organisers.

But the Bench was not convinced. Previously, children as young as 10 years were also allowed to participate in the ritual, symbolising Lord Krishna eating butter stealthily, while the handis were suspended at heights of up to 50 feet.