MADURAI: In the wake of Hindu Munnani planning to hold a protest on Tuesday on the Thiruparankundram Hills issue, Matha Nallinakka Amaippugal on Sunday claimed that the issue was settled by the court around 100 years ago clearly mentioning the rights of the Muslims at the hills.
Matha Nallinakka Amaippugal is a group of organisations, including political parties, that have joined hands to promote religious harmony. Holding a press meeting, advocate S Vanchinathan, coordinator, alleged that Hindu outfits were attempting to destroy the religious harmony by reopening a closed issue to have an upper hand in the constituency in the 2026 Assembly election.
Later in the day, Madurai police denied permission to Hindu Munnani to hold the protest.
Vanchinathan said the Ist additional subordinate court in Madurai in 1923, while pronouncing its order in a suit filed by the government seeking ownership of the hill, had assessed 300 documents and examined 21 witnesses before classifying the boundary for Sikkandar Dargah and Subramaniya Swamy Temple at the hills.
Later, the government appealed it to the Privy Council (then the apex court before Independence) where the council in May 1931 again confirmed the judgment of the trial court. After Independence, the state again seeking ownership of the dargah land had approached the IIIrd additional subordinate court in 1975 where the court again confirmed the dargah land belonging to Muslims.
“No one from the locality, temple or dargah raised any issue over the existing pattern but the Hindu outfit started it. Moreover, the Muslims were not seeking even an inch extra apart from the court-mentioned land,” he said, adding that the court in their judgments, the inam register and the district gazette clearly mentioned it as Sikkandar hill.
Admitting the documents also mentioning the hill as Skanda hill, he said Hindus used to call it as “Skanda hill” whereas Muslims mentioned it as “Sikkandar hills”.
In a statement, the Madurai police said there were five petitions pending before the Madurai bench on the issue. They also booked a few cases which are under investigation. The Hindu Munnai planned to hold a protest on Tuesday but the police denied them permission. The police also urged people not to take part in it, failing which legal action would be initiated, they warned.