The Kerala High Court on Wednesday came down sharply on officials over the severe crowd congestion that threw Sabarimala into disarray a day earlier, observing that the situation spiralled “because there was no proper coordination” among the authorities responsible for managing the annual pilgrimage.

A Bench monitoring Sabarimala arrangements noted that the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) had failed to implement earlier directions and questioned why essential preparatory work was not completed well in advance. The judges said many of the works “should have been completed six months ago” before the pilgrimage season began.

The Bench asked the TDB why its previous instructions had not been followed and why such a large number of pilgrims were allowed into the temple precincts at the same t

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