CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Thursday modified its order on the ‘Kar Seva’ of cleaning shoes at the Goddess Cuttack Chandi temple by Suman Patra and set fresh conditions of community service for grant of bail. The single judge bench of Justice CR Dash has given the 19-year-old youth, accused of outraging modesty of a woman, the option of undertaking ‘Kar Seva’ at Cuttack Chandi or any other temple by sweeping floor, preparing puja implements, serving food or doing any other welfare work entrusted to him by the authorities or spending part of his pocket money to provide pencils, clothing, chocolates or study material to children in orphanages. He should also associate himself with any voluntary organisation or group of Cuttack city for collection of blood for needy patients. He will have to accept any two of the three conditions. In case he opts for Kar Seva at the temple, the condition should come into effect from the first Sunday or any other day of his choice from the first week of October. If he chooses to engage himself with orphanages and blood donation, the conditions would come into effect from October 1. The duration of the conditions would be one year or till the conclusion of the trial. Patro had filed a petition for modification of the earlier imposed Kar Seva of cleaning shoes of devotees. His counsel argued that the act would be humiliating and could prove counter-productive as he was fairly young and barely out of his teens. The judge observed that the condition imposed earlier was not against law or a punitive measure. Taking into consideration that Kar Seva in the shoe stand of a shrine was not yet recognised as an honourable community service and that the stand was managed privately on contract basis, “I feel persuaded to give a rethinking into the matter,” he stated. The court also took note that Patra had donated blood as community service on September 23 and found it proceeding in the right direction to correct himself, but was also wary of the “design to play confidence tricks on the court and community.” The Judge also sought suggestions of the DGP, the Commissioner of Police, the Chief Secretary, NGOs and editors of newspapers on community services where young offenders could be engaged as a correctional measure. A compilation of suggestions and views should be filed within four months for review and use as reference in other cases, Justice Dash stated. Patra had allegedly misbehaved and outraged the modesty of a 22-year-old woman at a marriage function on June 29 this year. He had been arrested on July 4.
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