I am posting below an article from The Hindu regarding "High Court says no to modifying restrictions imposed on Tiruvannamalai Karthigai Deepam festival".
"High Court says no to modifying restrictions imposed on Tiruvannamalai
Karthigai Deepam festival
The Madras High Court on Wednesday
refused to interfere with any of the restrictions imposed by the Tiruvannamalai
district administration with respect to conduct of the Arunachaleswarar
Temple's 17-day Karthigai Deepam festival which began on Tuesday and is scheduled
to end on December 3.
Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and R.
Hemalatha took judicial notice of numerous lives that had been lost due to
COVID-19 and also the fact that lakhs of devotees congregate in the temple
every year to witness various rituals associated with the annual festival. They
felt that it would be very difficult to follow the COVID-19 standard operating
procedures.
Disposing of a public interest
litigation petition filed by V. Sakthivel, State vice-president of Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (VHP), the Bench observed that people in such gatherings generally
lack self discipline and hence relaxing any of the restrictions might make it
difficult for the police to control the crowd and lead to other complications.
Though the petitioner's counsel
insisted that the Urchavamoorthy must be taken in a temple car on the four Mada
Veethis around the temple on November 26, the judges said they were not
inclined to interfere with the decision taken by the district administration as
well as temple management to take the Panchamoorthigal only on the fifth
Pravesam within the precincts of the temple to avoid gathering of large crowd
to witness the car festival.
The judges hoped that the
restrictions imposed on the festival would be for this year alone and normalcy would
be restored from next year. The observation was made since the petitioner
feared that permitting any change to the mode of conduct of the festival would
become a new normal and the temple management might not revert to old practices
thereafter.
Explaining the restrictions
imposed, advocate AK Sriram, representing the temple management, told the court
that only 800 devotees would be permitted inside the temple every two hours
after insisting upon wearing of masks, checking their body temperature and so
on. The devotees would be allowed inside the temple only till November 28.
The Bharani Deepam would be lit at
4 am and the Maha Deepam at 6 pm on November 29 when no devotee would be
allowed inside the temple. "We will not be able to control the crowd, if
we allow devotees inside the temple on that day. When it comes to the question
of health, we must strike a balance between it and the need to follow religious
practices and rituals," he said.
The
counsel added that the Theppa Utsavam would generally be conducted at
Ayyankulam which was about two kilometres away from the temple. However, this
year, it had been decided to conduct the ritual in the Brahma Theertha Kulam
inside the temple. Only those required to conduct the Utsavam would be allowed
inside the temple on that day and entry shall be barred for devotees. The
entire festival would come to an end with the Sandikesavar Urchavam on December
3".
