The High Court of Gujarat in a midnight hearing dismissed a batch of petitions seeking permission for Rath Yatra at Ahmedabad.
The bench comprising Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice J B Pardiwala was hearing two applications, one by Hardik G. Brahmbhatt on behalf of Shri Jagannath Mandir Trust, another application filed by Shivani Rajpurohit on behalf of Kishansinh Ramsinh Solanki. Both the applications were received late at night.
Both the applications sought modification of the order passed on June 20 and to permit the Rath Yatra being carried out as usual or may be with certain conditions. The main ground was that the order passed by the Supreme Court on June 22 which permitted the Jagganath Yatra at Puri with certain conditions.
The bench began hearing the matter at 12.45 am on June 23 and the hearing went on for 2 hours.
The bench observed that on June 20, two grounds were mentioned by the Court for staying the carrying out of the procession of the Rath Yatra. First the condition of Ahmedabad on account of crisis of pandemic of COVID-19 and second was the order passed by the Supreme Court on 18.06.2020 restraining the Rath Yatra at Puri and in the entire State of Orissa.
The bench while dismissing the applications observed that the situation in Ahmedabad on account of pandemic of COVID-19 cannot be compared with the situation in Puri or in the State of Orissa.” The bench further observed that despite the fact that assurance being given by the State and all other applicants the Court did not find any good ground to recall or modify its order.