Cuttack, July 19: A PIL filed in Orissa High Court has sought intervention against construction of a Jagannath temple on top of the Chhalia hills at Patali Srikhetra in Sonepur district.

Patali Srikhetra, located 23km from the district headquarters town of Sonepur, is one of the significant sites associated with Lord Jagannath of Puri. According to legend, the place was the Lord’s abode to dodge an attack during the Muslim invasions in the 16th century.

The PIL, filed by Kambudhar Karna, 36, and Nirakara Pradhan, 38, two residents of Ullunda in Sonepur, alleged that the district administration along with the Patali Managing Trust was undertaking construction of a temple for Patali Jagannath “in a wrong place” on the Chhalia hills “in a forceful manner”.

In the process, the sentiment and emotion of local people is being sidelined, the PIL contended.

The petitioners also alleged that “the construction is being undertaken around 2km from the natural Patali Srikhetra Pitha located on the Trikuta hills consisting of three hills — Guja, Dwajabandha and Chanda”.

“The division bench of Chief Justice C. Nagappan and Justice Indrajit Mahanty, before which the petition came up on Wednesday, has sought the legal status of the trust. While issuing the direction, the bench expected submission of an affidavit on it by the petitioner within 1 5 days,” petitioners’ counsel Ashis Kumar Mishra told The Telegraph today.

According to the petition, revenue records indicate that the three hills called Chandili hills and the Jagannath cave (locally named as Madhaba cave) is situated on the Trikuta hills, and an ancient writing — Sri Sri Sri Patali Jagannath — is etched on the cave’s gate.

One Jagannath mandap (locally known as rasa mandap) is situated in the Trikuta hills near the cave and there are three fountains — Deba Jharana, Amba Jharana and Papuri Jharana — near it. The petition has not been taken up by the high court for hearing so far.

In 2007, a team of Jagannath cult researchers and Puri Jagannath temple servitors, led by the erstwhile Puri temple administrator, visited Kotsomalai and concluded that Lord Jagannath had been indeed hidden in a cave of the nearby Trikuta hills for many years. Accordingly, the Puri temple administration granted Patali Srikhetra status to Kotsamlai.

In 2011, during the Patali Mahotsav, the idols of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra, donated by the Puri Jagannath Temple Administration to the Patali Srikhetra Management Committee, were installed in the existing temple at Kotsamlai.

In July 2012, Puri Gajapati Dibyasingh Deb laid the foundation stone for a proposed temple after the government decided to undertake construction of a Jagannath temple on top of the Chhalia hills and peripheral development at Patali Srikhetra.