C. BALASUBRAMANIYAN Vs. DISTRICT COLLECTOR, SIVAGANGAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, villager of Katttanipatti and the devotee of Arulmighu Chinnasanthi Veeranan and Periyasanthi Veeranan temple filed this writ petition.

(2.) The prayer sought for by the petitioner is to direct the respondents 1 to 7 to take appropriate action on the representation of the petitioner, dtd. 16/6/2022.

(3.) On a perusal of the representation, it is seen that the petitioner has filed a petition in O.A.No.7/2016/E1 before the Joint Commissioner, HR and CE Department against Rajasethuramalingam, Kakramuthu, Janakarajan, Rasamanikam, Aasaithambi, Rajendran, Mayalagu, Thirunavukkarasu, Sankaran and Pandi stating that there are around 1200 families in the village around 3000 persons and they have been traditionally conducting temple festival during the month of Aani and Thai. The temple is a public temple and the temple festival is conducted on the donation collected from the entire village. The respondents in O.A namely, ten persons are forcing the villagers to give special honor to them when they enter the temple from Manthai in procession holding umbrella and head gear projecting as tough and he is also a demil God. Hence, the petitioner had filed O.A.No.7 of 2016 before the Joint Commissioner and the Joint Commissioner, by an order, dtd. 19/3/2022 had allowed the OA stating that before God, all are equal and all the devotees are to be treated equally and further, directed the said Raja Sethu Ramalingam and nine others not to disturb the peaceful conduct of the festival in any manner, against which appeal has been filed before the Commissioner, HR and CE Department, in A.P.No. 37/2020/D2 and it is still pending. According to the petitioner, Raja Sethu Ramalingam and his group with their muscle men and man power are forcibly attempting the villagers to give them undue importance and respect. Hence, the petitioner was forced to send representation as well as to file petition before the Joint Commissioner. Thereafter, apprehending unrest and disturbance in the festival on 24/6/2022, peace committee was held, wherein the petitioner group as well as Raja Sethu Ramalingam participated and it was agreed between both the groups that as per the orders of the Joint Commissioner, HR and CE Department in O.A. No.7 of 2016, no special honour will be given to anybody. Further, temple festival is to be conducted in a peaceful manner treating one and all as equal. The HR and CE Department officials, police officials, and the revenue officials participated and agreed that they would follow the orders of the Joint Commissioner and conduct the festival in a peaceful manner. Further, Raja Sethu Ramalingam group though gave undertaking before the Tahsildar, Sivagangai, that they would co-opearate and participate in the temple festival and now interpreting the undertaking in a different way, stated that the restrictions will be only outside the temple and they are free to treat themselves as they wish.