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High court bans bathing photos

The Allahabad high court, in an order passed on Friday, has ordered the Kumbh Mela administration to ensure that press photo- and videographers are not permitted to focus on nude Naga sadhus and ladies bathing at the Sangam.

Chief Justice S K Sen and Justice G P Mathur, ruling on a Public Interest Litigation filed by Allahabad resident R R Shukla, declared that Rule 18 of the United Provinces Mela Rules outlawed such photography, and demanded to know why the mela administration had not complied with the above rule.

Additional chief standing counsel Pradeep Kumar, on behalf of the administration, informed the court that photographers had already been warned against taking such pictures, and that the administration would, here on, take even more stringent measures.

Subsequent to the court's ruling, the mela administration has officially decreed that photographers will not be permitted within 200 metres of the Sangam point. Further, the notice prohibits the use of zoom lenses even from the 200-metre cut-off point. Mela Commissioner Sadakant said the police on security duty at the Sangam had been instructed to take stern action against any photographers transgressing this rule.

Not, mind you, that it makes much of a difference -- the Nagas remain unclothed in their camp at the Juna Akhara, and there is no restriction on the hordes of pilgrims, and pressmen, who wander through the camp, talking to and photographing the sadhus at will.

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