Madras HC upholds ruling allowing lighting of deepam on Madurai hilltop

BENGALURU: The Madras high court on Tuesday allowed the lighting of the Karthigai Deepam lamp on the Thiruparankundram Hills in Madurai, and pulled up the Tamil Nadu government for invoking an “imaginary ghost” of disturbance to law and order to resist a long-standing Tamil tradition for “its own convenience.”

- AyeshaArvind

‘Abench of Justices G Jayachandran and KK Ramakrishnan upheld a December 1 order of Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madurai bench of the court, who directed that a lamp be lit atop the hill as part of the Tamil Karthigai Deepam festival.

The court held that the state failed to place any concrete material to show that lighting the Karthigai Deepam lamp would disturb public order, and said the government had relied only on assumptions and apprehensions, which cannot justify restricting a religious practice.