Pandharpur Wari 2021: Supreme Court dismisses plea to allow millions of devotees to perform pilgrimage till Lord Vithal temple
The Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices AS Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy today declined to entertain the plea moved on the issue by the Sant Namdev Maharaj Sansthan.
The petition challenged the Maharashtra government's decision to allow only ten palkis to perform the Dindi (or pilgrimage to Lord Vithal Temple) in the wake of the emergence of the Delta Plus variant of COVID-19.
The petitioner had stated that warkaris (pilgrims) from Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kamataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana will ·face a lot of hardship in completing their wari, which normally starts froth their home to the Temple of Lord Vitthal situated at Pandharpur, since the Maharashtra government has allowed only 10 palkis to perform the Dindi in contrast to the millions of warkaris who sought to do it and 250 plus registered palkis
The plea added that the Maharashtra government had arbitrarily denied the permission of conducting an age old practice of wari and that the denial of permission to millions of warkaris and 250 plus registered palkis violated the fundamental rights of warkaris.
The NGO further stated that last year the warkaris did not press for the pilgrimage but this year it should be allowed.
The plea had urged the Court to allow all warkaris to undertake the pilgrimage on foot from their homes till the Lord Vithal temple and also to direct the State to arrange interstate bus services to transport warkaris.
The plea had also sought for a direction so that palkhis from across India are allowed to travel and so that no restrictions are imposed on the numbers as done by the Maharashtra government.
