MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday vacated the interim injunction passed by it on Thursday, restraining the HR&CE department from conducting the consecration ceremony at the Kasi Viswanathar Temple in Tenkasi on April 7.
A bench of Justices J Nisha Banu and S Srimathy said the ceremony may go on, but the directions regarding the inspection, to be conducted by the advocate commissioner and IIT Madras experts, stay intact and the inspection report be submitted before the court on April 21 as directed.
The bench changed its decision after additional advocate general Veera Kathiravan contended that the renovation works are almost over, and the defects pointed out by the petitioner are unrelated to the consecration ceremony.
Moreover, several rituals relating to the ceremony, including the Ganapathi Homam, palalayam, etc, have already been carried out, and many devotees and pilgrims have started gathering at the temple in view of the ceremony, Kathiravan added.
The officials also submitted photographs of the completed renovation works before the court to back their claim. Following this, the judges modified the interim order and adjourned the matter to April 21.
Earlier, the court had restrained the HR&CE department from conducting the consecration ceremony at the temple based on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by M Nambirajan, who claimed that the renovation works have not been undertaken properly and the allotted funds have been misappropriated. The petition was listed for clarification on Friday based on the request made by the government not to stop the ceremony at this stage.