RANGARAJAN NARASIMHAN Vs. PRINCIPAL SECRETARY, TOURISM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The grievance of the petitioner in this public interest litigation is that the State Government is purporting to interfere in the religious affairs and altering the religious practices of Hindu religious institutions in temples. The grievance appears to be particularly against the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department which is in control of a large number of temples in this State.

(2.) The petitioner claims that most of the temples have been set up according to the agama principles and it has been the age-old tradition for mantras to be chanted in Sanskrit language. According to the petitioner, the very sanctity of the mantras is destroyed if not chanted in Sanskrit.

(3.) The petitioner refers to a judgment rendered by a Division Bench of this court on December 16, 1998 in W.P.No.18273 of 1998 (Pasha Karuppiah v. State of Tamil Nadu). The petitioner relies on paragraph 18 of the judgment to assert that it has already been accepted in this court that the language in which the mantras would be chanted may only be Sanskrit. Paragraph 18 of the relevant judgment reads as follows: