The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday granted a stay on a Single Bench order that had issued a series of directions for the maintenance of Subramaniya Swamy Temple at Tiruchendur in Thoothukudi district.
A Division Bench of Justices Paresh Upadhyay and R. Vijayakumar observed that the set of directions were issued in a service matter. Therefore the directions needed to be stayed. The court was hearing a batch of appeals preferred against the Single Bench order.
On March 3, the Single Bench had directed the Director General of Police to deploy at least 125 police personnel on the Tiruchendur temple premises to ensure protection to devotees and the temple administrators.
The court had passed the orders after the State had submitted that the devotees were being harassed by both the freelance archakas and the temple employees. The temple authorities were also directed to employ additional staff to implement the directions.
The Single Bench of the court had passed the order on a petition filed by M. Seetharaman, a freelance archaka at the temple. He said that he was prohibited from performing pujas inside the temple. The court had passed elaborate directions for the maintenance of the temple.
The Division Bench directed the batch of appeals to be listed for hearing on April 1. With the directions, the writ petition (service matter) as such converted as writ petition (PIL), the court directed the petition to also be listed before the Division Bench. The State submitted that the order of the Single Bench was already implemented.
