UT DGP told to deploy sufficient force after temple committee moves court

Just a day after the organisation, Lord Shiva, the deity, Prachin Shiv Mandir, sounded an alarm before the Punjab and Haryana High Court on a potential stampede during Mahashivratri due to the ‘sealed gates’ of the temple at Mauli Jagran, a Division Bench today asked the UT DGP to ensure deployment of sufficient force. The direction came as the Bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Vikas Suri modified its previous order on the deployment of Military Police.

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The organisation had on Monday told the Bench through counsel Dinesh Kumar Malhotra and Saksham Malhotra that the ‘sealed gates’ of the temple, if left unaddressed, could lead to stampede amid the expected surge of devotees. “The counsel representing the petitioner submits that since devotees will throng the shrine, and unless the main gates are ordered to be unsealed, it will ultimately result in a stampede at the relevant site,” the Bench observed.

The court also took note of the arguments by UT counsel PS Kanwar and Deepak Malhotra that they had taken over the temple’s possession and the main gates had been sealed in pursuance of an order on a petition filed under the provisions of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act.

The Bench, during the course of arguments, refrained from delving into the locus standi of the present petitioner to institute the writ petition, the validity of the temple committee to take care and watch the interests of the deity installed inside the temple and whether the decisions passed by the authorities were “suffering or not suffering from any infirmity”. The Bench also expressed concern over the risk of a stampede due to the narrow width of the gates leading to the shrine with the upcoming Mahashivratri on February 26 and a langar scheduled for March 2 on the temple premises. Earlier, the main temple gates were wide enough to ensure a smooth flow of devotees inside the temple, the court observed.

“As such, under the supervision of the Military Police, the entire crowd, shall be managed for the period commencing from February 25 to March 2 and after that the main temple gates shall be closed,” the Bench added.

The Union of India, however, submitted during the resumed hearing of the matter this morning that the Military Police could not be engaged in the protection of the religious institutions or for crowd control without the prior permission of the Ministry of Defence. Taking a note of the submissions, the Bench asked UT DGP “to ensure that a sufficient posse of policemen be deployed at the relevant sites”.