The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to examine a plea challenging the Kerala High Court’s decision in favour of the Guruvayur Sri Krishna temple administration, which decided to discontinue the ancient ritual of “udayasthamana pooja” on Ekadashi, reports PTI.
A bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Rajesh Bindal issued notices to the Guruvayur Devaswom Managing Committee, the Kerala government, and others in response to the plea against the December 7 order.
However, the court said the temple’s daily pooja schedule displayed on its website should not be altered. “We cannot intervene now. We will issue notice to the other side. Prima facie we are satisfied,” the bench remarked.
Udayasthamana pooja is a series of worship rituals performed in temples throughout the day, from sunrise (udaya) to sunset (asthamana). The Guruvayur temple administration had decided to discontinue the ritual on Ekadashi due to concerns over crowd management and to allow more devotees time for darshan.
The petition was filed by PC Harry and other members of families with priestly rights at the temple, arguing that Ekadashi was the most important festival and that the udayasthamana pooja had been conducted on this day since at least 1972, though it had been performed even earlier.
The petitioners contended that the rituals were streamlined by Adi Shankaracharya and any deviation could disrupt the manifestation of divine force or “Chaitanya.”