Dispute in Supreme Court on Sabarimala annadanam

NEW DELHI: Dispute in court between Kerala and Tamil Nadu elements of Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sangam who approached the Supreme Court seeking restoration of their food donation at Sabarimala.

A bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi was hearing the petition filed by Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sangam with its address at Thiruvananthapuram Fort yesterday. As the hearing progressed, the counsel for the Tamil Nadu unit of the organization came up with an objection. The Tamil Nadu component is said that they are the original Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sangam. The court which was in a crisis with this, adjourned the hearing of the plea to September 22.

Last April, the Kerala High Court denied permission to the Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sangam, which had been conducting food donations at Sabarimala since 2017, with the permission of the Kerala High Court. This was after another organization, Sabarimala Ayyappa Seva Samaj, approached the High Court seeking permission to donate food. High Court accepted the stand of the Travancore Devaswom Board that there is no need to give permission to anyone else as they are already conducting food donations. Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sangam approached the Supreme Court after this.