The Supreme Court on January 25 decided to examine an appeal filed by the Kerala unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) against a State High Court decision refusing their plea to run free bus service for Sabarimala pilgrims from Nilackal to Pamba.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and K.V. Viswanathan issued notice to the State government, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, which currently plies buses in the route under question, and the Travancore Devaswom Board for their responses to the appeal.
Senior advocate V. Chitambaresh, appearing for VHP Kerala, said the KSRTC buses were too few in number for the volume of pilgrims to the temple and the vehicles were in poor condition.
“We want to provide free service to the devotees,” Mr. Chitambaresh submitted.
The Bench asked whether the Nilackal-Pamba stretch was a scheme route or not. The senior lawyer said the route was maintained by the devaswom and not a scheme route.
Mr. Chitambaresh, along with advocates Annie Mathew and Govind Venugopal, said the pilgrims had till now been allowed to go in private vehicles up to Pamba which was the foothills of Sabarimala.
“A further four km trek up the hills was necessary to reach the holy shrine of Lord Ayyappa. But the entry of private vehicles was stopped 22 km ahead of Pamba at Nilackal since the time of COVID. The pilgrims were forced to depend on KSRTC buses for their journey from Nilackal to Pamba. KSRTC was collecting a higher fare as ghat charges and festival charges. Serpentine queue of pilgrims could be seen in the KSRTC depot at Nilackal. A minor girl even died this time enroute the hills this season due to the long wait,” Mr. Chitambaresh explained.
He said the proposed free service bus would not halt midway or park at Pamba.
The Kerala High Court had, however, denied permission. The Bench had held that granting special permit to a contract carriage would tantamount to stage carriage with corridor restriction.
