Disputes Between warring Groups over Control of Temples are consuming Time and Energy of Police and Revenue Departments, Read Order

The Madras High Court has called it an unfortunate situation that temple festivals are perpetuating violence and only becoming a center stage for groups to show who is powerful in a particular area as it entertained a petition filed for seeking police protection in order to conduct the festival at Arulmigu Sri Rudhra Maha Kaliamman Temple at Sirkali Town.

The single-judge bench of Justice N. Anand Venkatesh has stressed that devotion has taken a side seat and the festivals have become a show of strength by one group or the other.

"The purpose of a temple is to enable the devotees to worship god for peace and happiness. However, unfortunately, temple festivals are perpetuating violence and it is only becoming a center stage for groups to show who is powerful in the particular area. There is no devotion involved in conducting these festivals and rather it has become a show of strength by one group or the other. This completely defeats the very purpose of conducting temple festivals. If temples are going to perpetuate violence, the existence of temples will have no meaning and in all such cases, it would be better to close down those temples so that the violence can be averted. Till the man drops his ego and goes to the temple seeking for the blessings of the god, the whole purpose of having a temple is of no use," the court said.

The Judge stated that it is quite painful that the Court has to encounter writ petitions of this nature on a daily basis, more so during the months where temple festivals are conducted in the State.

The Court pointed out that time and energy of the Police and Revenue department is unnecessarily wasted in resolving dispute between the groups, who are fighting over their right to conduct the temple festival.

"The Police and Revenue have got other important functions to perform and their time is wasted by trying to resolve the dispute between two groups who have no devotion to god and are more interested in showing their strength over the other. In the considered view of this Court, the precious time of the Revenue and Police cannot be wasted in disputes of this nature," the court said.

In this view, the court ruled that there is no question of providing police protection for conducting the temple festival.

"It is left open to the parties to conduct the festival peacefully without their ego coming to the forefront. If any law and order problem is created, the respondent police. It is left open to the parties to conduct the festival peacefully without their ego coming to the forefront. If any law and order problem is created, the respondent police."

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