The building of the Ayodhya Temple has been in full swing since the verdict of the Supreme Court. There have been trusts and foundations set up across the country for the temple construction. Multiple awareness drives and fund collection programs have been set up with the same.
Facts
The petitioner in the said case is N. Selvakumar. He is the District convenor of the Sri Rama Janma Boomi Theertha Kshethra Trust. The petitioner had filed an application on 13th February 2021, in order to get permission to conduct an awareness drive through Madurai in a van in connection with the building of the Ram temple. The petition had submitted an application before the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Thilagar Thidal (ACP). The application was rejected; hence the petitioner approached the Court.
Contentions
The main contention that the petitioner raised was the jurisdictional issue. The Additional Public Prosecutor contended that the order in the said case was passed by the second respondents ACP. The petitioner stated that the ACP does not have jurisdiction over the 100 wards that are there in the district of Madurai. Therefore, the order that was passed by the ACP was outside their authority. The application should have been filed before the Commissioner of Police and not the ACP.
Madras High Court
The Court observed that the rejection of the petitioner’s request by the respondents was based on the COVID-19 problem and also taking into light the legal issues and problems that may arise. The Court noted that
“Nowhere it is stated that the second respondent does not have powers to pass orders and in case, he found so, he should have forwarded the same to the Commissioner of police instead of rejecting the permission”
while considering the fact that the respondents did not correctly follow the rules.
The Court explained its stand on the reason given by the respondents when it was pronounced that
“It is pertinent to point out that ‘Sri Rama’ is very close to the heart of the religious sentiments of Hindus and when people are allowed inside the movie halls, malls and other public places stipulating the basic safety measures like wearing masks and using hands sanitizer, I do not find any reason to validate the official stance taken by the second respondent in this matter.”
The Court also emphasised the fact that the respondent did not clarify how exactly the law-and-order problem would arise. The Court ordered the police to pass the appropriate order for the procession to take place. The single-judge bench of Justice R. Hemalatha directed the Commissioner of Police to pass orders with reasonable restrictions for the movement of vehicles for the awareness campaign around Madurai.
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