Ponda District Court Judge Irshad Aga after hearing both sides ordered temporary status quo and kept the next hearing of the case on March 5.
As soon as court passed the order, villagers hoped that with the blessings of Navdurga they will win the court battle . They shouted slogans in the name of Navdurga showing the victory sign and put gharane to the goddess in the temple.
On the other hand the temple committee has been forced to postpone the idol installation programme that had been fixed for March 3 to another date. Temple committee president Vallab Kamath said, “We honour the court’s status quo and have decided to reschedule programme. This is not the final order and there will be more hearings and we have to reply to the court. The villagers filed the petition just three days ago and we did not get enough time to prepare the reply.”
Adv Manohar Usgaonkar appeared on behalf of the temple committee, while Adv Amrut Kansar appearing on behalf of the villagers said there are a lot of proceedings to go on. He said the Mahajan Act is just about 100 years old, whereas the temple is ancient and has a history of several hundred years and depending upon the villagers’ claim and old documents this will be presented to the court.
Shailendra Panjikar who led the Navdurga Prathishtan, an association of the villagers, said that if the temple is private the temple committee should prove it in court. “We have several documents with us to show that all villager forefathers of Marcaim are founder members and will submit our old documents at the right time,” he said.
The villagers condemned the government for deploying a large police force during the Navmi Palkhim a few days ago creating fear in devotees and villagers who had gathered.
