MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, on Friday, directed the Pudukkottai Collector and Superintendent of Police to monitor and ensure that people belonging to the Adi Dravidar community are allowed to worship in the Pidari Veeramakaliamman Temple at Neivasal village in Thirumayam.
Justice M Nirmal Kumar gave the direction on a petition filed by M Ramasamy alleging that two caste Hindus—Alagappan and Karikalan—'illegally' closed the temple. According to Ramasamy, the temple is mainly worshipped by the people of the Adi Dravidar community.
Last month, Alagappan approached the HC against conducting a festival in the temple citing disputes between two groups. Disposing of the same, the court had directed the revenue authorities to convene a peace committee meeting to resolve the issue.
However, after conducting the peace meeting, Thirumayam Tahsildar ordered that no worship or festivals should be conducted in the temple. Taking advantage of the order, Alagappan and Karikalan closed the temple without getting permission from the HR&CE department, Ramasamy alleged.
Hearing the case on June 17, Justice Kumar had directed the authorities to reopen the temple. When the case was once again heard on Friday, the government counsel submitted that the temple was reopened on Thursday and an FIR was registered against a group of persons who tried to prevent the same.
Since the petitioner's counsel contended that the problem is continuing, Justice Kumar directed the Collector and SP to monitor the issue and file a report at the next hearing on July 8.