Read Time: 09 minutes
"Tirth and prasad offered at places of worship are regarded as sacred and bond the worshiper with the worshipped. While in temples and gurudwaras, prasad or bhog may be an essential part of their religion, it is not uncommon for other places of worship to serve some food, toast or drink as a religious offering," the court said.
The Supreme Court has set aside Kerala High Court's order allowing a PIL by a firm in contract issued by tender for supply of raw material, particularly cardamom for 'Aravana Prasadam' in the Sabarimala Temple, saying the Travancore Devaswom Board's decision authorising the Chief Executive Officer to procure cardamom from local sources, cannot be said to be arbitrary, irrational or unreasonable.
A bench of Justices A S Bopanna and P S Narasimha said the High Court committed an error in entertaining the writ petition filed by Ayappa Spices & Ors and it should have dismissed the writ petition on the question of maintainability itself.
In the case, the writ petitioner, is an interested party, it had supplied cardamom to the Board for the year 2021-2022. It had also participated in the two tenders by the appellant-Board, which later came to be cancelled. Although this information has not been concealed, it is quite evident that the writ petitioner was interested in the outcome of the writ petition, the bench said.
"The High Court should not have entertained the writ petition on behalf of an interested person who sought to convert a judicial review proceeding for enhancing personal gain," the bench said.
The bench also said it cannot lose sight of the fact that the Board initially tried to purchase cardamom by issuing tenders and calling for bids, not just once, but twice over. However, these tenders were cancelled since none of the bidder’s supplied cardamom of appropriate quality.
The court noted it is in these compelling circumstances, considering the impending festive season and the imminent need to prepare a humungous quantity of Aravana Prasadam, that the appellant-Board invoked the urgency clause in its regulations and authorised the Chief Executive Officer of the Sabarimala Temple to procure cardamom from local sources.
"Thus, it cannot be said that the decision is arbitrary, irrational or unreasonable. There is neither arbitrariness nor malice in the decision of the appellant-Board as all the prospective bidders were given a fair chance as the notice to purchase cardamom was published on the notice board," the court said.
The cardamom samples submitted by the bidders were then tested in a nearby lab, which was also established by the Commissioner of Food Safety as per an order of the High Court. Thereafter, price negotiations were conducted, and respondent no 2 was given supply orders after quoting the lowest rates, the court said.
Travancore Devaswom Board was aggrieved by the High Court's order of March 27, 2023 restraining distribution of Aravana Prasadam and by the second impugned order of April 11, 2023, which finally allowed the writ petition and directed prosecution of the appellant board for violation of the Food Safety and Standards Act, and destroying the seized stock. The Board had cancelled the tenders as samples were allegedly found to be containing pesticide beyond the permissible limit.
Though somewhat connected with divine blessing in the form of prasad or bhog, the case drew the court back to aggressive competing business interests -for supply of 7000 kilograms of cardamom for making Aravana Prasadam, the bench said.
"As of 2019, it is believed that India has a place of worship for every 400 people. While in most of these religious places, food is prepared and served at a large scale on special occasions, there are hundreds of temples and gurudwaras, which serve tens of thousands of devotees twice every day. Several temples and gurudwaras have their own unique and traditional way of preparing the prasad or bhog like the Laddu of Tirupati and Karah Prasad of the Golden Temple at Amritsar," the bench said.
In the case, the bench stayed the High Court's order on May 15, 2023 and directed the FSSAI to get an analysis of the Aravana Prasadam and file a report before this court. The report stated that the pesticides mentioned in the analytical report were below limit of quantification and was satisfactory and microbiological parameters conformed to ready to eat grain products and were not substandard.
Even though the report of FSSAI clarified that the Aravana Prasadam is fit for human consumption, the Board said it was no longer desirous to distribute the Prasadam in view of the long lapse of time.
Please Login or Register
