Deepam row: HC slams TN, upholds single judge's order

RUBBISHING the Tamil Nadu government's apprehensions of possible disharmony due to lighting of the Karthigai Deepam on the 'deepathoon' atop the Thiruparankundram hill as nothing but an "imaginary ghost" created by it "to put one community against another", the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered the Thiruparankundram Subramaniya Swamy temple devasthanam to light the lamp on the deepathoon during Karthigai Deepam festival.

- JEGADEESWARI PANDIAN

Disposing of a batch of appeals filed against Justice G R Swaminathan's order directing the lighting of the lamp on the deepathoon, a division bench comprising justices G Jayachandran and K K Ramakrishnan said, "Being at vantage point, the stone pillar called 'deepathoon', which is on a different rock summit, lower to the peak on which the dargah is