Bombay High Court Allows 58 Jain Temple Premises To Operate Kitchen For Nine Days of Ayambil Tap

The bench of Justices SC Gupte and Abhay Ahuja refused to allow takeaways as initially sought by the petitioners observing that it did not fulfill the rigours of the Standard Operating Procedure issued by the State on April 13, 2021, by which restaurant dine-ins and the opening of religious places for devotees is impermissible.

However, since restaurants in Maharashtra were permitted to cater to their customers through home deliveries, the Jain charities may be allowed to distribute special food, particularly pious Ayambil cooked food from their Trust premises to the devotees through teams of volunteers organized by them, the bench said.

The team of volunteers must not exceed seven people, the court added. It further clarified that the temples will remain shut, and under no circumstances shall devotees be allowed to enter temple premises for taking away pious food allowed by this order.

Considering various circumstances and having regard to number of devotees that each religious trust may have to cater food to, this court is of the view that a delivery system be operated by team of volunteers not more than seven, by each of religious Trust. It is needless to add that the delivery system be operated strictly in keeping with SOPs by respondent state. The state government has no objection on distribution of pious food by regulated delivery system as proposed by State.

Arguments

The trusts, Shree Trustee Atma Kamal Labdhisurishwarji Jain Gyanmandir Trust and Sheth Motisha Religious and Charitable Trust, among others, had approached the court seeking to quash the  April 13, 2021 directive of the State as it did not permit the opening of religious places.

The suggestion of food delivery to the devotees' home during the nine days of penance fell from the Court, on Thursday when State's Counsel Jyoti Chavan opposed the petitioner's prayer for takeaways.

"The team can take orders online, and the team of volunteers can deliver. The idea is there should not be a congregation," the court had said.

During the hearing on Friday, the petitioners, represented by advocate PB Shah again tried to propose the idea of takeaways, stating that the court's concerns of people congregating would be taken care of.

This invited strong resistance from the court. "We are not going to rely on earlier orders. The circumstances are different. What if 100 people land up at a time? We are not going to relax the SoP for you. You must try to work within the rules," the court told the petitioners.

State Counsel Jyoti Chavan reiterated the State's stand on Friday, to say that the state did not have a problem if the petitioners delivered the food through a restricted number of volunteers, however, "All religions teach humanity and we are trying to save human lives, the petitioners should understand this," she said.

The Bench then passed the order and said, "Trusts operating delivery system permitted herein shall communicate names and particulars of the delivery agents/volunteers to the jurisdictional police station/ concerned authority under Disaster Management Act responsible for monitoring SOPs in advance."

Similar orders were passed for trusts in Nashik and Pune. The Court noted that the petitioner was at liberty to file a separate petition seeking the opening of Temples for prayers.

[Shree Trustee Atma Kamal Labdhisurishwarji Jain Gyanmandir Trust & Ors. Vs. The State of Maharashtra & Ors.]