Precious time of police cannot be wasted in disputes between two groups: MHC
The Justice refused to grant police protection and dispose of the petition.
Madras High Court
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has refused to grant police protection for conducting the festival at Arulmigu Sri Ruthra Maha Kaliyamman temple in Mayiladuthurai district. The court also observed that the precious time of the revenue and police cannot be wasted in disputes between two groups who have no devotion to god.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh on Friday, while disposing of a petition seeking police protection for a temple festival, observed that the purpose of a temple is to enable the devotees to worship god for peace and happiness.
"Unfortunately, temple festivals are perpetuating violence and it is only becoming a center stage for groups to show who is powerful in the particular area," the Justice added.
There is no devotion involved in conducting these festivals and rather it has become a show of strength by one group or the other. This completely defeats the very purpose of conducting temple festivals. If temples are going to perpetuate violence, the existence of temples will have no meaning and in all such cases, it would be better to close down those temples so that the violence can be averted. It is quite painful that this Court has to encounter writ petitions of this nature on a daily basis.
The Justice refused to grant police protection and dispose of the petition.
A petitioner K Thangarasu, the trustee of Arulmigu Sri Ruthra Maha Kaliyamman temple in Sirkali, Mayiladuthurai, moved the MHC seeking to direct the State government to give police protection to the Aadi month theemidhi urtchava festival of the temple.
The petitioner sought police protection to ensure that no untoward incidents took place during the festival, Since his representation as trustee was not considered.
The additional public prosecutor who appeared for the State said that a peace committee meeting was conducted by the Tahsildar, where both the groups participated. However, even with the persuasion of Tahsildar, both the groups were not able to reach any settlement.
