Cuttack, July 11: Orissa High Court today agreed to hear Puri Mukti Mandap Pandit Sabha's plea for being allowed to be part of the adjudication on the PIL related to climbing of devotees on the chariots and touching the deities during rath yatra.

The pandit sabha is a decision-making body on religious practices at the Puri Jagannath temple and its decision is binding. The Shankaracharya of Gobardhan Peeth, Puri, is the president of the sabha. They said the Puri Mukti Mandap Pandit Sabha should be allowed to be part of the case since it had supported the Shankaracharya's opinion on the issue in 2013.

The PIL in question had challenged the Puri temple managing committee's decision accepting the opinion of Puri Shankaracharya Nischalananda Saraswati regarding the rights and privileges of people to climb on the chariots and touch the deities during rath yatra.

The division bench of Justice Indrajit Mohanty and Justice D.P. Choudhury fixed July 15 for hearing the intervention petition, which the sabha's vice-president Ashok Mohapatra filed today.

The Shankaracharya, to whom the high court had issued a notice in the PIL on June 27, was to file his response today for further hearing on the matter. But his counsel sought more time. The court has now allowed him time till August 1 and fixed August 10 for hearing on the PIL, which was filed by Basanta Kumar Behera of Cuttack.

The Puri Temple Managing Committee had, for the first time, prohibited devotees from climbing the chariots and touching the deities during the 2014 rath yatra on the basis of the opinion of the Shankaracharya.

In his opinion communicated on November 6, 2013, Puri Shankaracharya Nischalananda Saraswati said: "None other than the sevaks (who perform rituals or seva-puja on the chariots during rath yatra), the Shankaracharya and the Gajapati Maharaja are authorised to climb on the chariots and the devotees should have darshan from the Bada Danda without climbing on the chariots."