The Madras High Court directed authorities of major temples in Tamil Nadu to ensure that devotees who pay a special entry fee as well as those who enter for free get to worship the deity from the same distance as the regular devotee and no special privileges should be bestowed upon them. The verdict is based on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Indic Collective Trust.
The first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sunder gave the directive while entertaining a PIL petition from the Indic Collective Trust, which sought a direction to the HR&CE board to abolish the system of granting advantages to devotees in the “paid darshan queue”. The trust had sought to abolish the system of granting advantages to those who stand in the “paid darshan queue” at the Sri Andal temple in Srivilliputtur, Ekambaranathar temple in Kanchipuram and Oppiliappan temple in Thirunageswaram in Tamil Nadu.
Managing Trustee Aravindalochanan said that when he visited the three temples, he found that they provide special privileges to devotees who pay by allowing them quicker darshan closer to the idol and for a longer duration. “Money cannot be the basis for creating differentiation among equals,” Aravindalochanan said in the petition.
Irrespective of paid or unpaid devotees, the darshan of the deity shall be provided from one and the same distance to all, the bench said.According to the petition filed by its managing trustee G Aravindalochanan, he had visited the three temples with the belief that all devotees, irrespective of ‘free’ or ‘paid’ darshan category, would ultimately be allowed to experience the same ‘darshan’ for a relatively equal duration and from the same distance.
Unfortunately, the temples specified above provide special privileges of having darshan closely, quickly and for relatively longer for paid devotees, while free darshan devotees were neglected.“Money cannot be the basis for creating differentiation among equals, as the same was without any reasonable basis,” he said.
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