MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Friday ruled that any animal sacrifice, cooking, carrying or serving of any non-vegetarian food cannot be permitted on Thiruparankundram hill in Madurai, until a decision is rendered by a competent Civil Court with regard to the customary practice of animal sacrifice upon the hill. There is also a statutory bar against the practice on the hill as the same is in violation of Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Rules, 1959, the court added.
The court, however, permitted conduct of prayers and gatherings at the Nellithoppu area of Thiruparankundram hill during Bakrid and Ramzan alone, on condition that it does not affect the traditional footsteps which belong to the Subramaniya Swamy temple.
The order was passed by Justice R Vijayakumar, who was appointed as the third judge to provide clarification on the issue of permitting animal sacrifices, prayers and gatherings by the Sikandar Badusha Avuliya Dargah on the hill, after a division bench of justices J Nisha Banu and S Srimathy took divergent views on a batch of petitions filed in connection with the issue.
Justice Vijayakumar agreed with Justice Srimathy that the hill cannot be called Sikkandar Malai as both the revenue records and the gazette notifications issued by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) refer to the hillock only as ‘Thiruparankundram hill’ and not ‘Sikkandar Malai’.
However, as far as the matter of conducting prayers at Nellithoppu is concerned, the judge concurred with the decision of Justice Banu and said prayers and gatherings could be permitted during Bakrid and Ramzan based on the agreements made during a peace committee meeting held in 2023. Though the Mohammedans have been granted declaration of title for the 33 cents in Nellithoppu area, the pathway belongs to the Subramaniya Swamy temple and the Muslims have only right of usage over it, he pointed out, adding that the same should not be disturbed during the gatherings.
As regards the issue of animal sacrifice, the Dargah administration claimed that the practice of animal sacrifice is from time immemorial. But the petitioners and the temple administration argued that there was no such practice in the past. “When one side asserts that there is a practice from time immemorial and the other side denies the same, the party who asserts such a customary practice has to approach the competent civil court to establish the same,” Justice Vijayakumar said, confirming with Justice Srimathy’s decision.
The judge also referred to Rule 8 of Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Rules, 1959, which prohibited certain acts within monuments. Citing the presence of two protected monuments- Pancha Pandava beds and Rock-cut cave inscriptions- on the hillock, the judge said the Dargah administration cannot be permitted to perform any animal sacrifice without the permission of the ASI, adding that any such permission would be in violation of ASI Act. “Therefore, as of today, there is a statutory bar against the traditional practice of animal sacrifice over the Thiruparankundram Hillock,” he said.
