The Supreme Court has allowed the Udayasthamana Pooja at the Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple to continue as per the earlier practice, pending the appeal, on a plea by the temple’s Chief Priest.
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday permitted the continuation of the Udayasthamana Pooja at the Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple in Kerala as per the earlier practice, pending the appeal, on a plea moved by the Chief Priest of the temple against a direction of the Kerala High Court, recording that the prayer is similar to the relief granted by the Court on 30 October 2025 [Chief Priest of Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple v. Respondents].
A Bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi passed the order.
The order
The Bench allowed the pooja to go on in the manner in which it was being performed earlier, until the appeal is decided. It noted that the prayer made by the Chief Priest is similar to the relief granted on 30 October 2025. The interim arrangement does not decide the challenge to the Kerala High Court’s direction, which remains pending before the Supreme Court.
The 30 October 2025 order
On 30 October 2025, a Bench of Justice J.K. Maheshwari and Justice Vijay Bishnoi directed that the Udayasthamana Pooja be performed on Vrishchikam Ekadasi (1 December 2025) without change, subject to the outcome of the appeal. The Court recorded that the pooja had been discontinued on the ground of public inconvenience caused by crowds, and that long-standing rituals should not be unsettled on that basis alone for interim purposes.
The competing positions
In that earlier round, the petitioners, who claim priestly rights at the shrine, contended that the Ekadasi observance is the most significant festival of the temple and that any disruption of the ritual affects its sanctity. The temple’s managing committee, on the other hand, had cited crowd management and the wish to give more devotees time for darshan as the reasons for not holding the pooja. The Court has not decided these contentions finally, and the order of 8 October 2026 is an interim arrangement that takes no view on the competing positions on religious practice.
Why the order matters
The order keeps the temple’s ritual schedule as it stood while the appeal is pending, extending to the present plea the approach the Court took on 30 October 2025. It is a protective, interim measure and leaves the questions raised in the appeal open for the Court’s final decision.
Case Title: Chief Priest of Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple v. Respondents (against the direction of the Kerala High Court)
Bench: Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi, Supreme Court of India
Date of Order: October 8, 2026