Court orders notice to the authorities but says the festival shall go on.
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The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ordered an interim stay on a circular issued by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department based on which instructions were issued not to print names of Mandagapadi members in the invitation of ‘Panguni Perunthiruvizha’ at Kasinathaswamy Temple and Papanasamswamy Temple at Ambasamudram in Tirunelveli district.

A Division Bench of Justices J. Nisha Banu and S. Srimathy ordered an interim stay on the circular for four weeks. The court ordered notice to the authorities concerned and posted the matter after four weeks. However, the festival shall go on, the court directed.

The court was hearing the public interest litigation petition filed by S. Arumuga Nainar of Ambasamudram. The petitioner said that he was filing the petition challenging the circular issued by the HR and CE Department.

He sought the quash of the circular and also a direction to the Executive Officer of the temple to print the names of Mandagapadi members in the invitation of the temple. The authorities had orally instructed that the names of Mandagapadi members will not be printed in the invitation of Panguni Perunthiruvizha which was based on the HR and CE circular, he said.

He said that the earlier order of the High Court was misinterpreted by the authorities. On a plain reading of the judgment, it was clear that the judgment is in personam passed according to the facts and circumstances of that case. Further, there is no general direction given to the authorities to follow the same in all the temples across the State.

The petitioner said that in their temple, equal rights and opportunities were given to members of every caste. Fair representation was given to people of each and every community, he said.

In the earlier High Court order, a Division Bench had observed that the temple festivals should be inclusive. The practice of listing specific caste names in the temple invitation solely on the basis of financial contributions is unwarranted, the court had observed in the case with regard to Arulmigu Nadiamman Temple in Pattukottai of Thanjavur district and directed the authorities to ensure that the future invitations for the temple festival do not carry the names of any caste groups.