New Delhi: The row over lighting of a lamp at the sacred “Deepathoon” pillar on Thiruparankundram hill could have been resolved amicably but was “escalated by some disgruntled elements”, a two-judge bench of the Madras High Court said Tuesday, as it upheld an order passed by brother judge Justice G.R. Swaminathan in December last year.
“Attempts to demoralize and demean the judiciary with the might of power, had also surfaced,” the bench comprising Justices G. Jayachandran and K.K. Ramakrishnan observed in its 170-page judgment, as it rejected 26 appeals filed by state authorities and Hazarath Sultan Sikkandar Badhusha Avuliya Dargah, among others.
The court also said that it thought it could explore the possibility of an amicable settlement through mediation while hearing the appeals.
“However, as the arguments proceeded, slowly we realized the inter-loppers, fence sitters and onlookers outside the ring are waiting to play the spoil game, since they gain as long as the animosity among the two communities continues,” it lamented.
The Thiruparankundram hill houses both the Subramaniya Swamy temple and a dargah. While the dispute has been simmering for months now, the latest controversy erupted when devotees approached the high court seeking permission to light the deepam at the Deepathoon, a sacred stone pillar which is closer to the dargah on the hill than the traditional spot at the temple.
On 1 December, the court allowed this plea and directed the executive officer of the Thiruparankundram Devasthanam to light a lamp at the stone lamp pillar on the full moon evening of the Tamil month of Karthigai.
However, the district collector and the superintendent of police expressed apprehensions that implementing the order would disturb public peace.
On 3 December, devotees then approached the high court, complaining that Madurai officials had made no arrangements for the implementation of the order.
A contempt of court case is still pending before Justice Swaminathan.
Meanwhile, the state authorities and the dargah filed appeals challenging Justice Swaminathan’s order.
Days after this order, over 100 INDIA bloc MPs, led by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, moved a motion before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, seeking Justice Swaminathan’s impeachment, saying his conduct “raises serious questions regarding impartiality, transparency, and the secular functioning of the judiciary”.
However, the impeachment motion did not mention this order passed by him.
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‘Agama Shastra’
Before the high court, state authorities—through the district administration, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department (HR & CE), and other petitioners—argued there was no established custom of lighting a lamp at that specific place on the hill.
The appellants also told the high court that the order violated ‘Agama Shastra’, or religious texts, and claimed that this was a new custom invented by the court.
They had submitted that during Karthigai Deepam festival, the lamp is traditionally lit at a designated place known as Deepa Mandapam next to the Uchipillaiyar temple, in line with the views of the ‘Sthanikars’, the temple’s hereditary priests. Therefore, lighting the deepam at any other place on the hill was against the ‘Agama Shastra’.
However, the bench ruled that the appellants had failed to produce “formidable evidence” to show that the Saivite Agama Shastra prohibits lighting a lamp at a place that is not above the deity in the sanctum sanctorum.
It also noted that it was not the case of the Devasthanam or the government that lighting a deepam itself was not a custom prevailing in Thirupankundram Hill.
The court took note of past litigations on the dispute and the political history of the hill as well. “[W]e hold that the issue, which has undergone judicial scrutiny in different forms for the past 100 years, needs to be resolved to maintain comity instead of keeping the fire live even without lighting the lamp,” it observed.
The court noted that it was in the course of the appeals that the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board raised the “mischievous submission” for the first time that the lamp pillar belongs to the dargah. However, the court asserted that the stone pillar is located in the portion of the hill that has been declared by a civil court as the property of the Devasthanam.
‘Let there be light’
The high court judgment began with a Biblical quote: “God said Let there be light and there was light.”
In its conclusions, it came down heavily on the state administration, observing, “It is ridiculous and hard to believe the fear of the mighty State that by allowing representatives of the Devasthanam to light the lamp at the stone pillar near top of the hill located within its territory of devasthanam land, on a particular day in a year, will cause disturbance to public peace. Of course, it may happen only if such disturbance is sponsored by the State itself. We pray no State should stoop to that level to achieve their political agenda.”
It found that apprehension of the district administration on the probability of disturbance to public peace was “nothing but an imaginary ghost created by them for their convenience sake and to put one community against another community under suspicion and constant mistrust”.
The district administration, it said, should have taken this as an opportunity to bridge the difference between these two communities. “Unfortunately, due to lack of conviction, all these years the peace meetings have paved way only for widening the mistrust. We hope, by implementing the below directions, which can be suitably modified whenever festival of respective community falls, then there will be only light and not any fight,” it observed.
The court, therefore, ruled that the Devasthanam must light the lamp at the Deepathoon. It also said that in addition to the prohibitions and restrictions found in the Ancient Monument and Archaeological Sites and Remains Acts and Rules, the ASI shall impose conditions appropriate and necessary to preserve the monuments in the hill.
It observed that no public shall be allowed to accompany the Devasthanam team and the number of team members shall be decided in consultation with the ASI and police, while the district collector shall coordinate and supervise the event.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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