MADURAI: The State Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department has moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court against the Single Bench order on dress code to be followed in temples.
The petition filed by the HR&CE Department said that while the dress code based on rules of The Tamil Nadu Temple Entry Authorisation Act, 1947, was already being implemented in the temples, the order was unnecessary and should be set aside. The order has also been contrary to the customary dress code practices being followed traditionally at many temples.
The Single Bench should have consulted the temples that already follow dress code customs, said the petition, which is likely to be heard on January 5.
Earlier, while hearing a petition on permission to conduct a musical dance programme at a temple in Akkiyampatti in Tiruchy district, Justice S Vaidyanathan had given the dress code order asking the department not to allow entry of people wearing jeans and leggings. Only traditional and full body covering clothes should be allowed into the temple.
Challenging the order, the department prayed that the dress code was being followed in some temples as per the Tamil Nadu Temple Entry Authorisation Act, 1947, which has provision to allow temples to follow their own customary practices in the dress code, if any, contended Special Government Pleader V R Shanmuganathan.
For instance, at Thiruchendur Murugan Temple, men are allowed in only if they do not cover their upper body. The department could not ask such temples to follow the new order. But Justice Vaidyanathan ordered that men could walk in wearing shirts. Before giving the order, the temples that have specific rules on dress code should have been consulted. So the order, which was unnecessary, should be quashed, the petition said.