The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a public interest litigation petition which sought to ban use of temple precincts for government or political events, celebrating birthdays or birth anniversaries of political leaders, organise Golu, celebrate English New Year Day or for entertainment activities during marriages, Sashtiyabdapoorthi or Sadabhishekam (completion of 60 or 80 years of age).
First Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy said, the petitioner Rangarajan Narasimhan of Srirangam had not cited any specific instance to prove his allegation of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department having permitted the use of the temple complexes in the State for any political event or meeting.
Though the litigant claimed that a speech delivered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after inaugurating Kedarpuri reconstruction projects including the rebuilt Samadhi of Adhi Guru Sankaracharya, was telecast live in 16 temples in the State on November 5, 2021, Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram said, the live telecast was done as per instructions issued by the Centre on November 1, 2021.
After going through the speech, the judges pointed out that it appeared to be a completely religious programme associated with a great saint. They also stated that the petitioner could not pick up some stray paragraphs, on development works undertaken in Uttarakhand and measures to fight COVID-19, from the speech to contend that it was political in nature and therefore could not have been telecast in temples.
The Bench said that the litigant had cited some stray sentences out of context without reference to the theme of the speech.
