Supreme Court refuses urgent hearing against HC decision over pooja at Guruvayur temple

Refusing the grant the request, the CJI said it will be listed for hearing Wednesday. The senior counsel said that the matter would become infructuous even if it was taken up Wednesday as the pooja time would have elapsed but the CJI didn’t agree. The Udayasthamana pooja is a series of around 15-18 poojas.

The appellants, members of the family having priestly rights in the shrine, pointed out that ‘ekadashi’ is the most important festival of the temple and that while it is an admitted fact that the age-old udayasthamana pooja is being conducted since 1972 on Ekadasi day, in reality it is being conducted from even before.

The appellants said that the rituals were streamlined by none other than Adi Sankaracharya and it is believed that any disturbance or deviation will impair the manifestations of the divine force or Chaitanya. The appeal added that “the non-performance of Udayasthamana pooja on” December 11 “is against the established religious custom, ritual and usage followed in the Guruvayur Temple”.

The temple administration, including the chief priest, had decided against holding the pooja on December 11, which is the Ekadashi day in the Malayalam month of Vrishchikam, citing difficulties in crowd management and to increase the time for the darshan, it said.

The temple administration took the stand that “there is no deviation from any ritual… as alleged”, and said that the “litigation is the result of a family feud between the members of” family having priestly rights in the temple.