Orissa high court to deliver verdict on Durga idol height row today

CUTTACK: The Orissa high court will on Friday pronounce its judgment in the case of Cuttack city’s Balu Bazar Puja Committee versus the state government over the restriction imposed on the height of the idol for Durga Puja this year.
The worshipping of the mrinamayee murti (5ft 2inch clay idol) of Goddess Durga at Binod Bihari-Balu Bazar is a more than 500-year-old tradition dating back to the visit of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a Bengali saint, to Cuttack and the consecration of the idol in 1512.
In 1890, the business community of Balu Bazar, along with with residents of the locality, took up the responsibility of the puja and converted it into a community or sarbajanin Durga puja.
The state government has restricted the maximum height of Durga idols to 4ft for community pujas, saying the decision was made to avoid a possible third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, Ramesh Chandra Behera, the secretary of Balu Bazar Puja Committee, on Tuesday filed a petition seeking permission to raise the height of the idol this year. The petition was taken up on Thursday.
The two-judge bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice B P Routray directed to place the petition for order at 2pm on Friday after hearing the arguments of senior advocate Pitambar Acharya, on behalf of the Balu Bazar Puja Committee, and the state counsel, D K Mohanty.
Acharya argued that the height of the idol of Goddess Durga has nothing to do with the spread of Covid-19. Hence, there is no rationale behind restricting it to less than 4ft.
“It is purely a matter of traditional religious practice. When the height of the idol has no role in the spread of Covid-19, the imposition of the restriction by the state government’s interference is uncalled for,” Acharya further argued.
State counsel D K Mohanty, on his part, submitted that the maximum height of 4ft for Durga idol is a statewide restriction. So, the Balu Bazar Committee cannot be treated as an exception.
Mohanty further clarified that the HC had last year allowed nine puja committees to complete the idols that were more than four ft in height taking into consideration that they had already started making them. However, the notification regarding the four ft height restriction has been issued well ahead of the the making of idols this year, he said.
The nine puja mandaps for whom the HC had relaxed the 4ft height norm last year included those at Sikharpur (52), Nuabazar ( 52), College Square (49), Alisha Bazar ( 6), Balu Bazar (5), Manglabag ( 7), Upper Telenga Bazar (8), Firingi Bazar (8) and Kazi Bazar (5).