MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has decided to hear on December 12 all appeals filed and going to be filed against the Thiruparankundram Karthigai Deepam verdict dated December 1. A bench of justices G Jayachandran and KK Ramakrishnan took the decision on Friday morning while taking up the appeals filed by the collector and the executive officer (EO) of the Thiruparankundram Subramaniya Swamy temple challenging the verdict passed by Justice GR Swaminathan. The judges said all those who were parties to the proceedings in the order and wished to file an appeal can do so by Friday so that the bench can hear them together.
Since allegations were made that the matter is being precipitated outside and adverse remarks were being made against the judiciary, the judge told all the counsel to instruct their clients not to provoke the court or do anything contemptuous. The court will tolerate to some extent but don’t take it for granted, they said.
In the said verdict, Justice Swaminathan had quashed the EO’s proceedings dated November 3 rejecting Rama Ravikumar’s request to light the Karthigai Deepam on the Deepathoon near the dargah atop the hill and had directed the EO to light the deepam on the Deepathoon also, along with the usual places, from this year onwards.
Meanwhile, Justice Swaminathan adjourned the contempt petition filed by Ravikumar over non-compliance of the verdict to Tuesday. While hearing the said petition on Wednesday evening, the judge had permitted the petitioner to light the Deepam on the Deepathoon with CISF security.
However, the police prevented the petitioner from doing so, citing the prohibitory order imposed by the Madurai collector around the same time. The said prohibitory order was quashed by the judge on Thursday evening with a direction to the city police commissioner to give full protection to the petitioner to enforce the order, and the matter was listed on Friday morning at 10.30 am for reporting compliance. But the direction was also not complied with by the police.
On Friday morning, the judge noted that the appeals filed by the state against the main verdict are pending before the division bench and the state has also preferred a Special Leave Petition against the dismissal of the Letters Patent Appeal which challenged the direction permitting Ravikumar to light the lamp with CISF protection.
Since the Supreme Court and the division bench are seized of the matter, he adjourned the contempt petition to December 9. However, the judge directed the Deputy Solicitor General of India to obtain a report from the CISF commandant who accompanied the petitioners to enforce his order.
Earlier, the division bench binned a fresh Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a devotee R Vignesh seeking to quash the prohibitory order passed by the Madurai collector under Section 163 BNSS, since it was already quashed by the single judge on Thursday evening.