New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Puri Jagannath temple to consider allowing people of other faiths to visit the shrine and worship the deity, subject to certain undertakings.

The bench of Justices A.K. Goel and Ashok Bhushan made the suggestion to the temple management board and sought the views of the Centre and senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae.

"The temple management can consider, subject to such regulatory measures with regard to dress code, furnishing of a declaration or such other requirements as considered necessary, permitting every visitor, irrespective of his faith, to offer respects and make offerings to the deity," the bench said in a written order.

The court made the suggestion on the basis of an earlier judgment that held that "Hinduism, as a religion, incorporates all forms of belief without mandating the selection or elimination of any one single belief".

Indira Gandhi, when she was Prime Minister, was denied entry into the temple as she had married Feroze Gandhi, a Parsi. The temple management has been saying only Hindus can enter.

Reacting to the apex court's proposal, the chief administrator of the temple, P.K. Mohapatra, told The Telegraph: "The next hearing is on September 5. We have enough time to examine the issues raised by the court. Once we receive a copy of the judgment, we will examine it."

However, the senior servitor of the temple, Jagannath Swain Mohapatra, said: "This is a Hindu temple. We cannot allow people of other faiths to enter it. A non-Hindu cannot enter the temple with the same feeling as a Hindu's. Besides, once we open the gates of the shrine to people of other faiths, the Jagannath culture may get polluted."

The apex court bench said it was making the suggestion in order to invite the views of all stakeholders in the matter in the light of an earlier apex court judgment in the "Adi Saiva Sivachariyargal Nala Sangam and ors vs Government of Tamil Nadu, 2016".

The top court had then held that "religion incorporates the particular belief(s) that a group of people subscribe to. Hinduism, as a religion, incorporates all forms of belief without mandating the selection or elimination of any one single belief. It is a religion that has no single founder; no single scripture and no single set of teachings. It has been described as Sanatana Dharma, namely, eternal faith, as it is the collective wisdom and inspiration of the centuries that Hinduism seeks to preach and propagate. It is keeping in mind the above precepts that we will proceed further."

The bench made the suggestion while dealing with a PIL filed by an Odisha-based devotee, Mrinalini Padhi. The petition brought to the court's notice the difficulties faced by visitors to the temple and their alleged harassment by the servitors.

The bench took on record a report submitted by the district judge of Puri and accepted various suggestions.

The recommendations include the abolition of hereditary servitors, prohibition of the collection of money by servitors for the annadan atika (earthen pots with cooked food), a ban on the placing of thalis (plates) by the servitors to receive offerings, and a provision for separate toilets for male and female devotees and the servitors.