A bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy disposed of the petition after the parties reached a consensus and the HR&CE department assured the Court that the prescribed rituals, particularly a 48-day long ritual of smearing sandalwood and other holy paste on the forehead of the temple deity’s idol, will go on as it does every year.
The petitioner, advocate TR Ramesh, moved the High Court seeking an urgent hearing claiming that the State authorities were planning to restrict the ‘mandalaabhishekam’ ritual or the ritual of sandalwood smearing, to just three days.
Ramesh argued that such “truncated” abhishekam’ went against the agamas or the prescribed rituals of the temple.
The TN government and the HR&CE department, however, told the court that the State had no intention of going against the agamas. They had only opposed the scale of the ritual given the heavy footfall the temple receives ahead of the Palani Festival that is scheduled for February 5.
The Department, through Special Government Pleader Arun Natarajan, submitted that the mandalaabhishekam ritual will happen everyday for the scheduled 48 days.
The High Court in its order recorded the Department’s submissions that a consensus has been arrived at in the present matter.
Source: Barandbench
