MADURAI: Hearing a petition alleging caste discrimination during the Vaikasi festival chariot procession of the Aravayee Amman temple in Senapadi of Karur, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently directed the district’s collector and other authorities concerned to file a report with specific findings regarding the allegations and reserved the matter for passing a detailed order.
Further, as an interim relief, the Vacation Bench comprising Justices P Velmurugan and KK Ramakrishnan permitted the temple’s committee members to conduct the temple festival from May 21 to May 23, on condition that they take the chariot till the border of Senapadi, without going on a procession through the other villages.
The court passed the directions in a petition filed by P Ramesh who claimed that the said temple belongs to both the SC and caste Hindu (Vanniyar) communities. On the second day of the three-day festival in the Tamil month of Vaikasi, the chariot of the temple used to reach the Mariamman temple in Nerur during which SC community residents would prepare Pongal and perform pooja before the chariot following which it is taken back to Senapadi.
However, for the past 15 years, the chariot has not entered our locality, which comprises nearly 180 SC residents, despite repeated appeals to the temple committee members. Even this year the committee turned down their requests, the petitioner said. With petitions sent to the district collector and the
HR&CE department yielding no results, the petitioner said he sought the court’s intervention.
Hearing the plea on Thursday, the judges summoned the collector, inspector general of police (Central zone) and superintendent of police, among others.
During the hearing, the temple committee members claimed that it is a private temple and that only the residents of Senapadi, Mallapalayam and Muniyappanur can claim right over it. Officials, too, denied the allegations of caste discrimination.
HC orders RPO to renew passport of TPDK chief
Chennai: The Madras High Court has ordered the Regional Passport Officer (RPO) to renew the passport of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam president ‘Kolathur’ Mani irrespective of the pendency of criminal cases, including a case under TADA registered in 1994, against him.
The order was passed recently on a petition filed by Mani praying for a direction to the RPO, who had refused to renew the passport after it expired last year. “The first respondent (RPO) shall consider the application of the petitioner dehors the pendency of the criminal cases and if the petitioner is otherwise eligible, reissue the passport within eight weeks,” Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy said in the order.
The judge, however, directed Mani to take prior permission of the courts concerned, where four criminal cases are pending trial, before leaving for any foreign trip.