On Wednesday, the Supreme Court took suo moto cognizance on the decision of the Uttar Pradesh government to proceed with the annual Kanwar Yatra in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic.
A Bench led by Justice Rohinton Nariman issued a notice to the UP government and enquired for its response while posting the case for further consideration on Friday July 16.
While issuing the notice to UP government, Justice Nariman stated, “I read something in the Indian Express. The citizens of India are completely perplexed. They don’t know what is going on. And all this amid the Prime Minister, when asked about a third wave of COVID striking the nation saying ‘we cannot compromise even one bit.”
The Court took Suo moto cognizance in regard to a report in ‘The Indian Express’ published on Wednesday that stated, “Amid fear of possible third wave of COVID 19, the Uttarakhand government has suspended the Kanwar yatra even as neighboring Uttar Pradesh is pressing ahead with the annual ritual that sees a heavy movement of pilgrims across states in the northern belt.”
The yatra is likely to take place from July 25 to August 6 in Uttar Pradesh. The state planned to allow the pilgrimage yatra with certain COVID 19 restrictions. However, on the other hand its neighboring state Uttarakhand have decided to cancel the yatra.
As far as reports are concerned, in 2019 when the yatra was organized around 3.5 crore devotees had visited Haridwar while more than 2-3 crore people had visited the pilgrimage spots in western Uttar Pradesh.
