Supreme Court tells state that citizens’ health and life paramount; all other sentiments, including religious, are subservient to basic fundamental right
Kanwar Yatra is an annual ritual that sees thousands of Shiva devotees travel, mostly on foot, to collect Ganga water to bring to their villages. File pics
All sentiments, including religious, are subservient to the Right to Life, the Supreme Court said on Friday, and asked the UP government to inform by July 19 whether it would reconsider its decision to hold a “symbolic” Kanwar Yatra. The Uttarakhand government earlier this week cancelled the annual ritual, but the UP government gave it the go-ahead on July 13, despite concerns that it might trigger a possible third wave.
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The SC’s direction came after the Yogi Adityanath-led government told the bench of Justices R F Nariman and B R Gavai that it has decided after relevant discussions to hold a “symbolic” Kanwar Yatra. The state told the court that ‘Gangajal’ would be made available in tankers, instead of collecting it from Haridwar.
The Supreme Court will hear the matter again on Monday
Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said state governments must not permit the yatra in view of the pandemic and arrangements should be made for water from the Ganga to be available through tankers at specified places. Considering age-old customs and religious sentiments, state governments must develop a system so devotees can collect holy ‘gangajal’ from it and offer it at the nearest Shiva temple, he added.
The bench told Mehta, “One thing is clear, we cannot allow the UP government to hold Kanwar Yatra in view of Covid-19.” Senior Advocate C S Vaidyanathan, appearing for the UP government, said, “Total ban on the yatra will be inappropriate.”
However, the SC told him that the state will have to reconsider whether to hold physical yatra at all. “We can give you one more opportunity to consider holding yatra physically at all. This or else we pass an order. We are all Indians and this suo motu has been taken up as Article 21 applies to all of us. Either you reconsider to have it at all or we deliver,” Justice Nariman remarked.
PM Modi with UP CM Yogi Adityanath, in Varanasi, on Thursday. Pic/AFP
‘PM’s certificate can’t hide UP’s negligence’
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Friday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for calling the UP government’s handling of the second Covid-19 wave “unprecedented”, saying his “certificate” cannot hide the truth of the Yogi Adityanath dispensation’s “cruelty, negligence and mismanagement”. “People faced enormous hardships, helplessness alone. This truth can be forgotten by Modi ji, Yogi ji, but not by those who suffered the pain of coronavirus,” she said.
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3,10,26,829
Total no. of Coronavirus cases in India so far
4,12,531
Total no. of deaths due to the virus in India so far
4,30,422
Total no. of active cases in India
July 25
Day from when the UP govt has allowed the annual yatra
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