Gujarat HC Division Bench Restores Non-Veg Food Ban Near Somnath Temple Within Hours
In an extraordinary late-evening legal development, a division bench of the Gujarat High Court swiftly intervened to reinstate the ban on the preparation, storage, and sale of non-vegetarian food within the immediate vicinity of the revered Somnath Temple in Gir Somnath district. The ruling came on Friday, October 30, 2026, just four hours after a single-judge bench had quashed the local administration's restrictive notification. Responding to an urgent post-hours motion filed by the Gujarat state government, the division bench headed by Chief Justice Manas Ranjan Pathak and Justice Nirjar Desai stayed the single bench's judgment, maintaining the non-vegetarian prohibition across designated pilgrimage zones pending the next formal hearing on December 26.
Rapid Legal Turnaround: State Mounts Urgent Post-Hours Appeal to Safeguard Sanctity
The swift sequence of legal maneuvering unfolded after Justice Nisha Thakore accepted a batch of petitions filed by local restaurant and eatery operators around 3:00 PM on Friday, setting aside the Gir Somnath District Collector's prohibitory order. In response, government counsel G.H. Virk immediately moved the Chief Justice’s court, prompting an exceptional evening hearing after standard court hours. Leading the state's arguments, Advocate General Kamal Trivedi cited established judicial precedents from other prominent Hindu pilgrimage hubs, including Haridwar, where constitutional benches had upheld localized dietary restrictions to honor the faith of visiting devotees. Countering the hoteliers' reliance on the fundamental right to carry on trade and occupation under Article 19(1)(g), the state maintained that constitutional liberties do not grant an unbridled license to conduct every commercial enterprise anywhere, stressing that Somnath is an ancient spiritual center of extraordinary faith rather than a routine commercial market.
Prohibitory Notification Maintained: 500-Metre Buffer Zone and Six Pilgrimage Corridors
By staying the single-judge bench's intervention, the division bench ordered that the administrative notification issued on August 10, 2026, shall remain fully operational throughout the sacred precinct. Under this administrative directive, the preparation, retail sale, and commercial storage of non-vegetarian food items remain strictly prohibited within a 500-metre radius of the Somnath Temple complex, as well as along six clearly demarcated transit arteries connecting vital religious shrines in the locality. While hospitality operators continue to argue that the blanket restriction impairs their financial survival and daily livelihood, the state administration maintained that preserving religious sanctity and honoring the spiritual sensitivities of millions of visiting pilgrims justifies reasonable, localized territorial limits on trade. The matter now moves to December 26, 2026, when the division bench will examine the broader constitutional merits and policy validity of the district administration's order.
