MADURAI: Observing that no constitutional violations were found in the procedure adopted by the government for conducting consecration ceremony at Thanjavur Brihadisvara temple, especially with respect to language, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court dismissed a batch of petitions filed seeking direction to conduct the ceremony in Tamil language.
Expressing its view, a Bench comprising Justices M Duraiswamy and T Ravindran observed in the order that the court should be hesitant and reluctant in interfering with religious festivals and ceremonies of temples unless it is established that the same are in violation of the provisions of the Constitution of India.
"Since the State government also assures that Tamil language would be given its due prominence in the said consecration as per Agama principles as done earlier and that Sanskrit has not been given any special status particularly by ignoring Tamil language, we do not find sufficient cause to accede to the case projected by the petitioners," the judges held.
They also recorded the government's contentions in its counter-affidavit that sufficient othuvars have been engaged to chant Tamil Thirumurai and that the 'dhaanam' would be distributed to each and every worker of the temple without any caste discrimination, the judges dismissed the petitions.
They further directed the State government to file a compliance report regarding the consecration within a month from completion of the ceremony to the Registry. The consecration is to take place on February 5.