High Court says no to abolishing ‘paid darshan’

Temple managements authorised to collect special darshan fee from devotees

The Madras High Court Bench here has refused to issue a direction to 198 famous temples situated across the State and falling under the control of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) department to abolish the practice of permitting devotees to bypass long queues and have a quick darshan of deities by purchasing special entry tickets sold by temple managements.

A Division Bench of Justices S. Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidaran dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed by Karaikudi-based lawyer C. Arun alias Arunachalam on the ground that the court could not order abolition of ‘paid darshan’ system as long as the temples do not demand money from all the devotees and use it in addition to ‘free darshan’ in view of augmenting the revenue to the temple.

Impleading all the 198 temple managements as respondents to his petition, the lawyer had contended that allowing wealthy devotees to bypass the long queues and have a quick darshan amounted to discrimination between them and the poor devotees who could not pay money for purchasing the special entry tickets.

He said that no one but for the physically challenged should be given preference for darshan.

However, Special Government Pleader VR. Shanmuganathan, representing the HR and CE department, stated that Section 57 of the HR and CE Act, permits temples to collect fees for the services rendered by them.

Hence, the temple managements were statutorily authorised to collect special darshan fee from the devotees who want to have a quick darshan without waiting for long in free darshan queues.