New Delhi, June 22: The Supreme Court on Monday allowed Rath Yatra to be conducted in Odisha's Puri with certain restrictions. In its order, the top Court said that the Rath Yatra will only be in Puri and not at other places in Odisha. It added saying that the annual yatra shall be held in the state with coordination of Temple committee, State government and central government without compromising with health issue. The Court also said that the state (Odisha) can even stop the yatra or festivities if they feel it is going out of hand.  According to a tweet by ANI, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik will chair the Rath Yatra preparatory meeting at 5 pm today in Bhubaneswar.

The nod by the apex Court comes after the Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that the historic Lord Jagannath's Rath Yatra in Puri can be allowed to be held this year without public participation in view of the coronavirus pandemic. It added saying that if the ban on the Rath Yatra was not lifted, stopping Lord Jagannath from taking his chariot ride starting Tuesday then as per norm, the Hindu god will not be able to have a Rath Yatra for the next 12 years.

Here's the tweet:

The Centre told the apex court that the Rath Yatra can be held without public participation. On Monday. the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, mentioned the Rath Yatra issue before a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra, after a top court bench put a ban on the Rath Yatra last week.

The annual Puri Rath Yatra, which is attended by lakhs of people from across the world every year, is scheduled from June 23 this year. Amid the rising number of coronavirus cases in Odisha, a bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and A.S. Bopanna ruled that there would be no Rath Yatra this year and there would be no chariot pulling of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra. The bench had also cancelled all other activities associated with the annual program.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 22, 2020 04:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).