Recording his profound regret over having allowed a number of petitions seeking permission to conduct “dance programmes” at temple festivals in Namakkal district, which (the dance programmes), Madras High Court judge P.N. Prakash dismissed a batch of such petitions as being devoid of merit saying the programmes “surpassed the very definition of the words obscenity and vulgarity.”
“I had passed those orders (permitting dance programmes) placing implicit faith in the representations of the counsels. One has to learn from previous bad experiences and I am willing to,” Justice P.N. Prakash said.
Noticing a spurt in such writ petitions from Namakkal district, the judge directed the Superintendent of Police, Namakkal, to be present before the court to explain what really happens at the ground level.
The judge was taken aback by the report submitted by the Superintendent of Police. According to him, persons who obtain permission from the High Court often organise obscene dance performances during temple festivals. The youths in drunken mood danced in the crowd, in which wordy duels arose, resulting in caste clashes, ruining peace in the villages.
The programmes were conducted by violating the court orders and the conditions imposed by the police throughout the night, affecting students, aged people, children and women. If police intervened to stop the programme in the stipulated time, the crowd used to get agitated quarrel with police and created a law and order problem, the officer said.
The Additional Public Prosecutor submitted that he had a video clip of the dance programme and that he was willing to play it.
After watching the video in his chamber, the judge said, “Everyone who watched the video had no option but to unanimously agree that it surpassed the very definition of the words ‘obscenity’ and ‘vulgarity.”
The police officer also pointed out that a representation was received on November 11 from Tamil Nadu Thiraippada Medai Nadana Kalaignargal Nala Sangam (the Stage Performers Welfare Association), Salem, which sought a ban on such dance programmes, as they left genuine folk artistes in the countryside unemployed.
Relying on a Supreme Court directive that held that courts should not interfere in the decision-making process of the police in matters relating to law and order problems and that it should be best left to the Executive to take decisions on merit on a case-to- case basis, the judge held that the petitioners also do not have a fundamental right to organise such programmes in public, especially, under the guise of conducting temple festivals.
