A vacation bench of the Bombay High Court on Monday refused to allow an urgent plea for Chhath Puja celebrations on Girgaum Chowpatty. The petition was filed by the Mithila Chhath Puja Sangh, which wanted permission to hold the festival on the beach on November 15 and 16.

Court hears the urgent plea on Monday

The vacation bench was led by Justice Advait Sethna. The Sangh had approached the court seeking urgent directions after the senior inspector of D B Marg police station objected on September 17 to the construction of a stage and other arrangements on the beach. The police objection covered arrangements planned from 3 pm to 8 am on both days, according to the Times of India. The Sangh's advocate, Jogendra Thakur, told the court that the organisation had sent a representation to the Chief Minister on October 7 and that it was still pending. The court took up the matter as an urgent plea because the festival dates were close.

The state's advocate pointed the court to its 2018 order on events at Girgaum Chowpatty. That order allows four events on the beach within a 4,180 square metre area. The state argued that any permission for a gathering on the beach had to follow the conditions laid down in that order. The judges then asked the Sangh's advocate specific questions about compliance with the 2018 order. They wanted to know whether the organisers had obtained permission from the monitoring committee that oversees activities on the beach, and whether the committee had been joined as a party to the case. According to the Times of India, Thakur had no satisfactory answer to these questions.

Judges point to checks and balances

The judges said that in the given facts and circumstances, the mandate of Article 25 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion, was clear. India Today reported that the court cited checks and balances while refusing relief to the organisers. The bench did not accept that an urgent direction could be issued when the organisers had not shown that they had followed the procedure the court itself had laid down for beach events. The order on beach events exists to protect the shoreline and to regulate large gatherings, and the court treated compliance with it as a precondition for permission.

Thakur then asked the court to pass directions about an alternative site for the celebrations. The judges declined to do so. They said the petitioner could pursue the remedies available in law. The court directed that the matter be listed again when the High Court reopens. The refusal means the Sangh cannot go ahead with its planned celebrations at Girgaum Chowpatty on November 15 and 16 unless it secures permission through the proper process.

What Chhath Puja means for Mumbai devotees

Chhath Puja is one of the biggest festivals for people from Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh, and large numbers of devotees in Mumbai observe it every year. Devotees fast and offer prayers to the Sun, often standing in water at riverbanks and beaches. Girgaum Chowpatty has long been one of the places where devotees gather in the city. The court's decision will affect the Sangh's plans for this year, and devotees who had planned to celebrate at the beach will now have to look for other venues or wait for the matter to come up again in court.

The dispute over Chhath Puja at Girgaum Chowpatty is not new. Access to the beach for religious and cultural events has been contested before, with residents' groups and the monitoring committee raising concerns about the condition of the shoreline after large gatherings. The 2018 order was passed in that background, and it limits the number and size of events that can be held there. The court's refusal on Monday keeps that framework in place and underlines that even religious gatherings must go through the permission process the court has set.

What happens next

The matter will be listed when the High Court reopens, and the Sangh can press its case then. It can also approach the authorities for permission at an alternative site. For now, the court's order stands, and the planned celebrations at Girgaum Chowpatty on November 15 and 16 cannot go ahead on the basis of the urgent plea that was filed.