A “disturbed” Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices suo motu to the Centre, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand towards a possible ban on the annual Kanwar Yatra, and flagged the “disparate” views on mass gatherings expressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders.

The bench referred to Modi’s statement, quoted in Wednesday’s news reports, that it was “up to us to stop” a possible Covid third wave and that “we cannot compromise even a bit”.

Despite this, the bench said citing a news report, the Uttar Pradesh government had decided to allow the Yatra although its Uttarakhand counterpart had withheld permission.

The Yatra, which reports say attracted 3.5 crore Shiva devotees in 2019, is scheduled from July 25 to August 6. Citing the short time left, the court sought responses to the notices by Friday morning.

The court notices come months after the April Kumbh Mela in Hardwar, where lakhs of pilgrims had congregated, was blamed for the second wave of the pandemic that devastated large swathes of the country.

“The headline just above this headline speaks about the Prime Minister’s statement when he met the northeastern chief ministers that when people ask about the third wave of the Covid-19 virus striking the citizenry of India, it’s up to us to stop it and we cannot compromise ‘even a bit’,” the bench of Justices R.F. Nariman and Bhushan Gavai said.

“Given the disparate political voices, all speaking at the same time, it is important that the relevant secretary, Union of India, respond to this news report. Given the fact that this yatra is to take off from 25.07.2021, it is necessary to fix a short time period for this case. Affidavits will be filed by Friday morning, the 16th of July, 2021, responding to the aforesaid news article by the relevant secretary, Union of India; principal secretary to the state of Uttarakhand; and principal secretary to the state of Uttar Pradesh.”

The annual Kanwar Yatra sees Shiva devotees, called kanwariyas, walk in processions from their homes to the Ganga or a tributary, collect the holy water and visit a Shiva temple of their choice to bathe the idol with it. The Yatra is popular mainly in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar.

Last week, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana had declined to entertain a batch of petitions seeking permission for this year’s annual Rath Yatra to be conducted in Odisha and other places in the traditional way, with large crowds participating.

Justice Ramana had said that as a devotee, he too would have liked to participate in such festivities but the pandemic situation was not conducive to it.

On Wednesday, the bench headed by Justice Nariman said: “We were a little disturbed given today’s headline in The Indian Express... about the Kanwar Yatra.... This court has taken suo motu cognisance of the newspaper report....”

According to the newspaper, Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had on Tuesday met top officials and police and discussed the fears of a possible third wave of Covid-19.

Following this, Uttarakhand decided to call off the Yatra, the report said.

It added that the Uttar Pradesh administration had begun preparing for the Yatra “with restrictions”, such as an insistence on small processions with physical distancing, short routes and mask-wearing, and a ban on collective singing or dancing.