MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday set aside an order passed by a single judge of the court last year, permitting devotees to roll over used plantain leaves left on the floor by other devotees after ‘Annadhanam’ at Saint Sadhasiva Shrine in Nerur in Karur district.
The court also directed the Karur district administration not to permit the practice till the Supreme Court takes a decision in a similar matter in Karnataka.
A division bench of justices R Suresh Kumar and G Arul Murugan passed the order on the appeals filed by the Karur district collector and one V Aranganathan, state president of Tamil Nadu Government Trained Archagar Association, challenging the aforesaid single bench order passed by Justice GR Swaminathan on May 17, 2024.
The aforesaid ritual had been banned from 2015, following an order passed by another division bench, led by Justice S Manikumar, on the grounds that it affected the dignity of life guaranteed under the Constitution. Though no appeal was filed against the said order for nine years, P Naveen Kumar filed a petition last year, seeking a direction to the authorities to consider permitting the ritual on May 18, 2024.
Justice Swaminathan had allowed the plea by observing that the right to privacy includes one’s spiritual orientation as well, and the state cannot impinge on it unless it affects the rights of others. Noting that the petitioner in the 2015 case did not make Nerur Adhishtanam as a party, the single judge had declared the old division bench’s order ‘null’.
Allowing the appeals against the said order, the division bench observed that the judicial discipline in higher judiciary dictates that when a single bench doubts a division bench order, it can only refer the matter to a larger forum.
The single bench cannot assume jurisdiction and declare such a division bench judgment a nullity.
The judges further opined that while the above ritual may not affect public order or create any health hazard, it is not clear whether it would affect constitutional morality.