MADURAI: Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday adjourned the contempt petitions filed over non-compliance of his Thiruparankundram deepam verdict to April 9, in view of the interim stay granted by a division bench of the court on Tuesday in a batch of Letters Patent Appeals (LPAs) filed by the state against his interim orders in the contempt petitions.
“If adjournment is sought to come back to the court with a response and the request is accepted by the court, fairness requires that the course of action undertaken is adopted. But probably all is fair not only in love and war but also in litigation,” he observed.
He also criticised why the city police commissioner and the deputy commissioner (south) failed to appear before court on Wednesday despite directions to do so in the last hearing.
Even while admitting that the state has the right to file the LPAs, Justice Swaminathan said he recalled that in the last hearing, he had suggested the authorities show symbolic respect to the court’s order by permitting five persons of the court’s choice to offer prayers to the “deepathoon” on the hill.
As a senior counsel representing the temple sought two weeks’ time to deliberate, the case was adjourned to March 18. But taking advantage of this time, the LPAs had been filed, the judge noted.
He pointed out that an earlier LPA by the commissioner and the district collector challenging his interim order dated December 3 - directing to light the lamp on deepathoon through one of the petitioners - had been dismissed by another division bench on December 4.
The contempt proceedings would have to go on, as not doing so would mean he failed in duty, the judge opined. But as the bench headed by Justice N Sathish Kumar is seized of the matter, he adjourned the hearing to April 9.