Youth below 18 years can’t participate in ‘Dahi-Handi’, height restriction for human pyramid: SC

New Delhi:The Supreme Court today refused to relax conditions put by the Bombay High Court like barring youths below 18 years of age from participating in ‘Dahi- Handi’ ritual of the Janmashtami festival in Maharashtra and capping the height of the human pyramid at 20 feet.

“We will continue with the Bombay High Court order relating to banning participation of youth below 18 (years of age) and fixation of the maximum height (20 feet). We will hear other issues in detail later,” a bench of Justices A R Dave and L Nageswara Rao said.

The order came on a plea of Maharashtra government seeking clarification of an earlier apex court decision by which it had stayed the operation of the High Court verdict fixing the height of the human pyramid and banning participation of those below 18 years in ‘Dahi-Handi’ ritual.

The bench was unimpressed with the plea of Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Maharashtra, that ‘Govinda’ symbolises Lord Krishna and there is a belief that kids between the age group of 12-15 years are considered more appropriate for enacting ‘Govindas’.

“People get hurt. We have heard Lord Krishna stealing ‘makhan’ but we have not heard the Lord performing acrobatics,” it said.

“As a matter of fact, risk factor is there in every sport,” the ASG responded.

The bench, which decided to hear the revived petition against the order of the High Court in October this year, however suspended the operation of two directions passed by the High Court to regulate the ‘Dahi-Handi’ festival.

One of the directions, suspended by the apex court, relates to amending the existing law to bar children below 18 years of age from participating in dangerous performances like being part of the human pyramid of ‘Dahi-Handi’ festival.

The second direction of the High Court, which was also suspended, relates to the part of the order which makes it mandatory for the organisers to apprise the authorities 15 days in advance about various aspects such as place of celebration, its timing and personal information, including the birth certificates, of participating ‘Govindas’ on the ground of paucity of sufficient time.

The Supreme Court had on August 10 revived a plea challenging a Bombay HC order restricting the height of human pyramids to 20 feet for ‘Dahi-Handi’ ritual, saying it needed to hear the PIL petitioner before passing any order.

The court had sought reply of Swati Sayaji Patil, a social worker, who had filed a petition for initiation of contempt proceedings against Maharashtra government in high court for failure to comply with the HC order.

The Maharashtra government had earlier approached the apex court seeking clarification on its 2014 order by which it had stayed the high court decision banning participation of those below 18-years in a popular ‘Dahi-Handi’ ritual.

The high court had on August 11, 2014, while hearing a petition filed by Patil, ordered that the height of human pyramids should not exceed 20 feet and that children below the age of 18 should not be allowed to participate.

The state government had then challenged the high court order in the Supreme Court which had initially suspended the HC order and later dismissed the petition challenging it.

The Maharashtra government had taken a stand that since the apex court had not expressed any opinion on restriction imposed by the HC on the height of human pyramids, it was not bound by its earlier order.

The high court had however asked the state government to seek clarification from the Supreme Court on the aspect that its earlier order would be in force unless it had been set aside by the apex court.

SC ruling on Dahi Handi met with disappointment in Maharashtra

The Supreme Court ruling on age bar of ‘Govindas’ participating in the ‘Dahi-Handi’ ritual in Maharashtra, today met with disappointment back home with political leaders and local groups seeing the move as a setback to the festive tradition and demanded that the state government file a review petition in the case.

Arun Sawant, spokesperson of the Mumbai Congress, termed the cap as “unnecessary” and said, “This is really very disheartening because in the last few years, many organisers have came forward to take care of Govindas in case of any eventuality. They vouched for the well-being of the Govindas and took upon their medical and financial responsibility if anything untoward happens.”

He said it is only the small organisers who put Govindas’ lives at risk during the Dahi Handi event.

Ruling BJP too said that it will do every bit to protect the “sheen” of the festival.

“Such sort of a cap is an attempt to spoil our rich culture of Dahi Handi which not only unites youth but also makes them stronger. We are going to do every bit to save this popular festival,” Mumbai BJP spokesperson Yogesh Verma said.

Congress leader and former MP Sanjay Nirupam, demanded that the state government file a review petition in the Supreme Court.

“This government should take a leaf from the Tamil Nadu government which challenged the ban imposed on Jallikattu by the Supreme Court after which it had to withdraw the ban.”

NCP demanded the Centre’s intervention in the matter to save the tradition.

“Since state government has miserably failed to put forth its stand on the issue, therefore our party demands union government to step in and preserve the tradition,” said Uday Pratap Singh, Mumbai NCP spokesperson.

“The previous government had taken bold steps to secure this festival with the cooperation of Dahi Handi mandals under the leadership of NMS leader Bala Nandgaonkar. But this government is busy defending ban on dance bars and has lost focus of sentimental and religious issues,” he said.

However, Shiv Sena spokesperson Neelam Gorhe refused to comment over the SC ruling and said that it won’t be wise to react without going through the the judgement.

Bhau Koregaonkar, the propounder of ‘Gorakhnath Mahila Dahi Handi Pathak’, the oldest and leading Dahi-Handi team of female Govindas, too reacted cautiously and said the onus is on the state government to protect the rich culture and tradition embodied in the festival.

“Supreme Court’s decision cannot be blatantly slammed because definitely there is a lot of risk involved in this ritual. There have been so many untoward incidents that forced the judiciary to put a cap on it,” said Koregaonkar.

“I think there should be a regulating agency to control and guide this tradition. Dahi Handi organisers must be issued licenses under strict guidelines,” he added.

The apex court today said that youth below 18 years of age cannot participate in the Dahi Handi ritual, part of the Janmashtami festival in Maharashtra and the height of the human pyramid for it cannot exceed 20 feet, a limit fixed by the Bombay High Court.PTI