MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking a direction to bring the Thiruparankundram Hill in Madurai under the control of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
The court directed the authorities concerned to consider and decide on the petitioner's representation after hearing all stakeholders.
A bench of Justices J Nisha Banu and S Srimathy passed the order on a petition filed by one KK Ramesh of Hindu Dharma Parishad. The additional advocate general contended that the petitioner had moved the court within just three days of approaching the authorities. Following this, the judges told the petitioner to give a fresh representation to the authorities concerned and passed the above order.
The judges also closed two other petitions, filed against the prohibitory order issued by the Madurai collector on February 3 and 4 and the press statement issued by the city police commissioner warning the public not to participate in the protest announced by the Hindu Munnani on February 4. Since the issue was resolved after the court permitted the outfit to conduct the protest at an alternate location, the judges closed the petition by observing that nothing survives for consideration in both cases.
The issue pertains to the conflict between two religious groups regarding animal sacrifice at the hill, where both the Subramaniya Swamy Temple and Sultan Sikkandar Badusha Dargah are located. Another petition filed by a Jain Mutt, seeking a direction to declare the hill above as a Jain hill, is still pending.