The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice in a writ petition filed by a Hindutva group seeking directions for the Archaeological Survey of India and other central organisations to take over control of the Arulmigu Subramania Swamy temple on the Thirupparankundram hill near Madurai in Tamil Nadu, Live Law reported.
The petition has also sought permission to light a lamp permanently, for 24 hours a day, on a stone pillar located on the hill. The hillock has the Arulmigu Subramania Swamy temple and the Sikkandar Badhusha dargah.
The petitioner, the Hindu Dharma Parishad, has further sought directions from the court to allow the entire Thirupparankundram hill to be lit with lamps during the Karthigai Deepam festival, held in November or December, and to permit devotees to offer prayers at the site on that day, the legal news outlet reported.
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul M Pancholi issued notice to the Union government, the Archaeological Survey of India, the Tamil Nadu government, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department, the Madurai district collector, the Madurai Police commissioner and the executive officer of the temple.
When the matter was taken up, Kumar asked whether the case was still pending before the Madras High Court.
The counsel for the Tamil Nadu government told the court that on January 6, a division bench of the High Court had upheld a single judge’s order allowing the lighting of the lamp, and that the parties were considering filing a special leave petition challenging the decision.
The controversy arose after temple devotees sought permission to light a lamp at the stone pillar. On December 1, a single judge bench of the Madras High Court, led by Justice GR Swaminathan, ruled that the pillar was a deepathoon, or a structure meant for holding lamps, and directed the temple to restore the tradition of lighting the lamp at the site.
The judge had also held that the practice would not infringe upon the religious rights of the nearby Muslim shrine.
The Tamil Nadu government, the temple authorities and the dargah management, among others, had challenged the order, raising concerns about law and order, ownership of the site and the nature of the ritual that had been allowed.
On January 6, a Madras High Court bench of Justices G Jayachandran and KK Ramakrishnan upheld Swaminathan’s ruling. The bench had observed that the stone pillar is located on the land that belongs to the temple.
It had directed the temple management to light the lamp during the Karthigai Deepam festival.
However, the court had said at the time that the lamp should be lit only by members of the temple management and that the public would not be allowed to accompany them.
Separately, on December 9, a group of Opposition MPs submitted an impeachment notice to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against Swaminathan, saying that the judge’s recent orders and actions have been viewed as “disruptive to social harmony and detrimental to integrity of the judiciary”.
The impeachment notice had come against the backdrop of Swaminathan’s order in the Thirupparankundram matter.
The MPs had stated that Swaminathan’s conduct had raised serious questions regarding the impartiality, transparency and secular functioning of the judiciary. They alleged that the judge had shown undue favouritism towards a senior advocate and lawyers from a particular community in deciding cases.
Also read: ‘RSS agenda, favours Brahmins’: The controversial career of a Madras HC judge under impeachment fire
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