The Madras High Court has directed the department of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) to conduct the Margazhi festival in the Arulmighu Chelliyaramman Temple in Virudhunagar District.
The department was instructed to make sure that all the devotees belonging to all castes including scheduled caste community are permitted in the temple.
The court passed this direction while hearing a plea alleging that scheduled caste members were not being permitted inside the temple.
The bench of Justice B Pugalendhi also directed the Tahsildar to ascertain if there exists any issue of untouchability in the Village and submit a report to the District Collector for taking appropriate action.
The court also stressed that no person or any group could restrain a person from performing his religious duties which was a right guaranteed under the constitution.
The Court said that even after 75 years of independence, if this state of affairs prevails on account of community in the village, it needs to be addressed and prevented.
The court said that under the Constitution,no person or group can restrain a person from performing his religious duties.
The court added that the temple was a public temple and the HR&CE had every right to interfere with the affairs of the temple.
It has been directed by the court that department should appoint a fit person and take appropriate action after ascertaining the report of the Tahsildar.
The court was approached by Pandiarajan, belonging to the Scheduled Caste community saying that they had been excommunicated from participating in the temple festival of Arulmighu Chelliyaramman Temple.
Pandiarajan informed the court that people belonging to the Maravar community in the village were not permitting people from the Scheduled caste community to participate in the temple festival and were preventing them from taking the mulaippari.
It was also submitted that they were not even collecting tax from the scheduled caste community members for the temple festival.
It was informed that Pandiarajan had already approached the Tahsildar in this regard and a peace committee meeting was conducted in the presence of the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Inspector of Police, Village Administrative officer, and HR&CE Department Inspector and a resolution was taken that the festival will be performed as per the advice of the HR&CE Department.