Kerala High Court Seeks Report On Action Taken Against Devaswom Guard Who Misbehaved With Pilgrims At Sabarimala

The division bench of Justice Anil K. Narendran and Justice P. G. Ajithkumar after perusing the report filed by the Special Commissioner, Sabarimala on the incident and viewing a video recording, observed that:

…the body language and the facial expression of the Devaswom guard, while shoving the pilgrims in front of Sreekovil of Sabarimala Sannidhanam has to be deprecated in the strongest words. For such misbehaviour towards pilgrims, the Devaswom guard has to be proceeded against, in accordance with law.

On January 14, a guard deployed by the Travancore Devaswom Board, on the Makaravilakku day after ‘Deeparadhana’, was seen misbehaving with the devotees having darshan in front of Sreekovil of Sabarimala Sannidhanam. In the video recording of the incident, the guard can be seen violently pushing the devotees having darshan in the first row in front of Sreekovil.

According to the report of the Chief Vigilance and Security Officer, due to the pressure of the crowd from the flyover to the temple after ‘Deeparadhana’, there arose congestion and a direction was given to speed up the crowd flow and in that process, the Devaswom guard pushed forward the devotees coming along the first row.

It was further submitted in the report that the Devaswom guard, who misbehaved with devotees has been relieved from duty at Sabarimala and was sent back to his home station on the next day.

The Court in Sajeev Sastharam v. State of Kerala had previously directed the guards engaged by the Travancore Devaswom Board and also the police officers on duty at Sopanam to regulate the movement of pilgrims through the barricades, in an appropriate manner, causing the least inconvenience to the pilgrims. Also to facilitate better crowd management, the third row was ordered to be maintained as a ‘buffer zone’ and the police officers were directed to stand on either side of the third row for crowd management.

The division bench had previously also issued various orders relating to crowd management at Sabarimala, to ensure that maximum number of devotees have a comfortable darshan at Sabarimala Sannidhanam.

“By those orders, the police personnel and Devaswom staff involved in crowd management are directed to give special care to senior citizens, persons with disability, children below the age of 10 years and also those having health issues,” the court noted.

It also said that in terms of direction contained in Sajeev Sastharam v. State of Kerala, the Police Special Officer at Sannidhanam and also the Sopanam Special Officer of Travancore Devaswom Board ought to have prevented such misbehaviour by the Devaswom guard towards pilgrims, in front of Sreekovil of Sabarimala Sannidhanam.

The Court suo motu impleaded Assistant Devaswom Commissioner, Travancore Devaswom Board and Arunkumar S., Devaswom Watcher, Manacaud Devaswom as additional respondents and directed Travancore Devaswom Board to place on record an affidavit explaining the facts and circumstances and also the action, if any, taken against the guard for his misbehaviour towards pilgrims.

The matter has been listed for further consideration on 24th January.