New Delhi: With only a few weeks left before the start of the Sabarimala pilgrimage season, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has moved the Supreme Court seeking the state government's intervention in removing piles of old Aravana cans stored within the hill shrine. 

Earlier, the Kerala High Court restricted the sale of Aravana prepared during the last pilgrimage season after a lab result revealed the cardamom used in preparation had pesticide content above the permissible level. 

The board also demanded that the petitioners, who approached the High Court, should be directed to pay compensation. The apex court will consider the TDB's petition regarding this in the first week of November. 

Since January, Aravana tins have been stored in various godowns at Sabarimala. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which inspected the presence of pesticides in cans, had reported that Aravana is safe for consumption.

However, TDB didn't sell the Aravana to devotees since the stocks had neared their expiry period and were older than two months. However, with around 6.65 lakh tins of Aravana piled up in godowns, TDB doesn't have any place to store the new batches of Aravana. The new pilgrimage season begins on November 17.

As a result, TDB demands the Supreme Court's intervention in directing the state government to remove the unusable Aravana tins worth Rs 6,65,15,900 from the godowns. However, the process of disposing of unusable stocks takes crores of rupees.