The Kerala High Court, on Monday, came out against action of a Devaswom guard who pushed and shoved devotees at the Sabarimala Ayyappa shrine attending Makaravilakku ritual at  Sabarimala on 14 January.

Taking a serious note of how the guard of the Devaswom Board regulated devotees who arrived for the Makaravilakku ritual on 14 January, a division bench of Justices Anil K Narendran and P G Ajithkumar said it was a “flagrant violation of the directions issued by this court.

“The manner in which the Devaswom guard by name Arun Kumar regulated the movement of pilgrims in front of Sreekovil, through the first row, was in flagrant violation of the directions issued by this court in the decision in Sajeev Sastharam case,” the bench ruled.

While hearing the case, the court also asked how a Devaswom guard could touch the body of the devotees and asked the Devaswom Board whether it had given permission to the guard to grab and push the devotees. The incident was unjustifiable, the court said.

When the state government counsel contended that this was done as part of the crowd control, the court pointed out that there are scientific methods of crowd control and that is the duty of the police.

The court heard the matter in the morning and directed the Special Commissioner and the police to submit a report on the matter. Sabarimala Special Commissioner submitted the report while considering the case again in the afternoon. The court directed the Devaswom Board to give details of the guard concerned and the action, if any, taken against him.

The court asked for inclusion of the Travancore Devaswom Board’s (TDB’s) top official and Arun Kumar as a party in the case. It will hear the case again on 24 January.

Meanwhile, the TDB president K Anantha Gopan said the board has sought an explanation from Devaswom guard Arun Kumar who pushed and shoved the devotees at Sabarimala. He said the board will take further action in the matter, as per the direction of the high court. He further said that devotees have not complained that the guard pushed them away. This was only seen on the videos.

A video showing the guard appointed by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) pushing and shoving devotees at Sabarimala on the Makara vilakku day went viral on Sunday.