With board exams underway, HC says no to loudspeakers at temple fest

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation seeking postponement of 'Panguni' festival celebrations in light of the board examination.

Murugesan, a resident of the Jaarikondalampatti from Salem district filed a Public Interest Litigation in Madras High Court seeking postponement of the temple festivals citing the board examination. The petitioner had submitted that both his son and daughter were preparing for the board exams which are scheduled to be conducted in the months of March and April. While so, the temple of Shri Sarvasiddhi Vinayagar, Shri Maariamman, Shri Kaaliamman, Shri Muniyappan temples issued an invitation for 'Panguni' festival which is one of the grandest festival happening in the month of March for about a month till April.

When the petition came for the hearing before Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, the counsel for the petitioner argued that the celebrations would sceptically affect the preparation of the students and would be a source of divertissement. He also argued that the authorities should not have placed the temple festivities on priority and granted permission prior to the examinations. Thus, he sought directions to eschew the conduct of festivals and to postpone the same to another time. The Solicitor General R Shanmuga Sundaram who appeared for the state said that appropriate instructions were issued in 2019 for conducting the temple festivals, imposing restrictions including that loudspeakers should not be used during the examination period. The counsel who appeared for the festival committee ensured that they will stringently follow the order issued in 2019 during the festival season. Observing this, the bench held that it was important not to cause any inconvenience to the students preparing for the exam, stopping an annual temple festival was not the solution. The court, however, directed the festival committee not to use loudspeakers during the examination period and dismissed the Public Interest Litigation.