V S SIVAKUMAR Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE short question that arises for consideration in these two writ petitions is as to whether the action of the official respondents in providing for archanas to be performed in Tamil at the request of the devotees in addition to the existing practice of reciting archanas in Sanskrit, would offend the right to profess Hindu religion guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) IN W.P. No. 15791 of 1998, the petitioner claims to be the President of the Hindu Temple Protection Committee and seeks for a direction to prevent the respondents State of Tamil Nadu and the Commissioner for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (for short, HR&CE) Department from interfering in any manner with the ceremonies, poojas and mode of performance, daily rituals of temples by customary traditional mode of worship.

(3.) HEARD the arguments of Mr. R. Venkatakrishnan and Mr. V. Raghavachari, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners in W.P. Nos. 15791 and 16932 of 1998 respectively and Mr. M.R. Murugesan, learned Special Government Pleader for HR&CE and other impleaded parties and have perused the records. Though the matter was heard quite sometime back, since one of us [K. Chandru, J.] was posted at the Madurai Bench during the second half of 2007, the orders could not be pronounced earlier.