Bombay High Court Permits Offering Of Flowers At Shirdi Sai Baba Temple, Says They Should Be Purchased From Farmers & Sold At Reasonable Rates

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday (November 14) while permitting the Shri Saibaba Sansthan, Shirdi to resume the practice of offering flowers to Sai Baba in the temple, directed that flowers must be made available for devotees for offering at a reasonable price.

The court further said that no devotee must be harassed or extorted by selling flowers at exorbitant rates.

A division bench of Justices Mangesh Patil and Shailesh Brahme made it clear that the Credit Co-operative Society of the Employees of the Sansthan, will purchase the flowers directly from the farmers and no middlemen must be allowed to intervene the transaction.

"The flowers could be made available by the farmers directly through the Credit Co-operative Society of the Employees of the Trust or the Sansthan and can be made available to the devotees at a reasonable rate within the premises of the Devasthan Trust by displaying the rate card in and around the premises of the temple. It would be the responsibility of the Municipal Council and the police to ensure that no unauthorised flower vendors operate and there would be no middleman," the judges observed in the order.

This, the high court said, would not result in any financial implication on the Sansthan, except in respect of disposal of such flowers and garlands offered to the deity.

"Since nothing has been mentioned in the resolution (passed by the Sansthan) as to the manner in which it would be disposed of and being a perishable one requiring regular and prompt disposal, it would be appropriate that permission is granted to the Sansthan for resuming offering of flowers/garlands as resolved by Resolution No.277, and calling upon the ad hoc committee to take appropriate decision at the earliest regarding the manner in which it decides to dispose of the waste to be generated by virtue of offering of the flowers/garlands," the bench directed.

The bench was seized with a civil application filed by the ad hoc committee overseeing the management of the Sansthan (as per orders of the HC), which sought implementation of its Resolution no: 277 passed on April 12, 2023, by which it was resolved to resume the practice of offering flowers and garlands to the deity. The practice was stopped because of enormous complaints by various stakeholders including the devotees who were being extorted for buying the flowers at an exorbitant rate. Several miscreants, it was noted by the Committee in 2020, had entered into the business and even offences were registered. In the wake of pandemic, the practice of offering flowers was therefore, stopped.

However, after agitation from devotees, to resume the practice, the ad hoc committee considered the various aspects of the issue and resolved to resume offering flowers and garlands to the deity and accordingly moved the bench for the requisite permissions.

The ad hoc committee further informed the judges that the disposal of these flowers, would be by virtue of an E-auction or E-tenders and that it had roped in one Janseva Foundation, which was headed by the wife of BJP leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, who is the present Minister of Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development. 

Notably, it was based on a recommendation by a committee appointed by Vikhe-Patil, that the ad hoc committee resolved to resume the practice of offering flowers and for disposal of the same through E-auction and E-tender. 

"If such used flowers and garlands are to be E-auctioned or disposed of by E-tender one wonders as to how there could be a stipulation superadded precisely for their use in manufacture of agarbatties. Similarly, we wonder as to how intention or desire of the Sansthan, expecting the District Magistrate and Municipal Council as well as police to co-ordinate selling of the flowers by unauthorised vendors, middleman and agent would work and as to how they would abate the criminal activities taking place once offering of flowers is resumed. We are only pointing out these aforementioned facts to demonstrate that the apprehension being expressed by the intervenor (devotees) cannot be said to be ill-founded and even the ad hoc committee seems to be quite alive to the potential criminal elements entering into the field once the practice of offering flowers/garlands resumes," the bench noted.

The bench, eventually, permitted the resumption of the practice to offer flowers and garlands, however, with a directive to the Sansthan to expeditiously decide as to how it would dispose of the flowers used for the said practice, to avoid unhygienic conditions within the temple premises. 

Case Title: Shri Saibaba Sansthan Shirdi vs State of Maharashtra (Civil Application 5846 of 2023)

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Bom) 593

Counsel for Petitioner: Advocate Anil Bajaj 

Counsel for Farmers (Who will sell Flowers) : Senior Advocate VD Hon along with advocate Ashwin Hon

Counsel appearing for devotees: Advocate PS Talekar instructed by Talekar and Associates 

Advocate Amol Sawant appeared for A BJP Leader

Counsel for the State: Government Pleader AB Girase

Click Here To Read/Download Order