Thirteen might be a jinxed number for many but the Supreme Court has said it will not brook any such superstitious belief by Kerala High Court.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal has conveyed its displeasure to the Kerala High Court on a petition, which complained that officials of the state's highest judicial institution were rooted in a strong superstition about the number 13 and were avoiding numbering its court hall with that number.
"The high court is an institution. It should not be allowed to encourage this sort of superstitions," the bench told Senior Counsel T V Viswanatha Iyer, appearing for the Kerala High Court on the matter.
If such superstitions are to be believed then all building structures in the country might have to be altered according to Vastu Shastra and other such beliefs, the bench said. The apex court had in May this year issued a notice to the Registrar General of the high court on a special leave petition filed by a social worker N K Chandramohan challenging a Kerala High Court order, which imposed a Rs 10,000
Chandramohan, in his petition filed through counsel K Rajeev, complained that since 1995, the Kerala High Court, which has 30 court halls, avoided numbering one of its court hall as 13 and instead numbered it 12-A. According to the petitioner, the superstition was based on certain Christian belief according to which the number 13 was a bad omen as Jesus Christ is believed to be the 13th guest at the 'Last Supper.'
The petitioner argued that otherwise cases of Hindu counsels and litigants should also be allowed to be listed in the courts in such a manner as to avoid the 'rahukalam,' which is considered to be inauspicious time.
