Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday issued a contempt notice to Raghu Raman, an officer of the Cochin Devaswom Board for allegedly breaching its guidelines on parading elephants at temple festivals. The action was taken for failing to maintain the required distance between jumbos during the annual Vrischikolsavam celebrations at Tripunithura's Poornathrayeesa temple.

The division bench of justice AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Gopinath P observed that the violations of the court's guidelines occurred on December 2 at the temple. The court pointed out that 15 elephants were thrust into a small space and its guidelines requiring a 3-meter distance between two elephants was violated.

On December 4, the court had asked the devaswom official to file an affidavit explaining his lapses in following its order. In his affidavit before the court, he argued that the court's regulations on elephant parading were violated only on one day during the festival as the devotees were not cooperating with the curbs. He added that the devotees accused him of violating the rituals of the temple.

But the court termed his explanation unsatisfactory and directed its registry to issue a notice under the Contempt of Courts Act to the official.

"Will you disobey Court's mandate if some devotees say something? Sorry, we cannot accept this affidavit, we will initiate contempt for absolutely disregarding our directions. State will become lawless. That cannot happen. How dare you play with lives of people...zero tolerance for this kind of behaviour. We therefore direct the registry to formally register a contempt of courts case and to issue a notice to the deponent Devaswom officer fortwith so that the deponent Devaswom officer can respond to the same on or before January 09, 2025,,” the court said.

It said prima facie, the Devaswom officer had committed an act of Civil Contempt.

The HC also directed the amicus curiae to enquire with the experts about the determination of elephants' age and so on and submit a report. The court will consider the case again on December 19.
(With Live Law inputs)