'No discrimination between paid and free darshan anymore'

MADURAI: Administrators of the Sri Subramaniasamy temple in Thiruparankundramhave made arrangements to enable devotees who opt forfree darshan to worship all main deities at the temple, a government lawyer informed the Madurai bench of the Madras high court.

Arrangement have been made to allow devotees who go in the queue for free darshan and devotees who go in the queue for paid darshan, to merge at a point, from where they could worship all five deities. There would be no discrimination at the temple, he assured the court.

With this, the court completed a suo motu case, which was initiated based on a letter sent by Viswanathan from Madurai, who said that devotees were being discriminated at the temple.

Viswanathan said that while a devotee go to a temple for peace of mind, it was not in the case of the Subramaniasamy temple, which is one of the six abodes (Arupadai Veedu) of Lord Murugan. "The idols of five deities - Sri Murugan, Sri Vinayagar, Durgadevi, Shiva and Vishnu are in the main shrine. Of them, the first three deities are in a single row and idols of Shiva and Vishnu, which are on the two sides of the single row facing each other. A devotee who goes in the queue for free darshan is able to worship only three deities. But, those who go in the paid queue, is able to worship all the five. It is utter discrimination and against the Indian Constitution," he had said.

He further stated that if the judge visits the temple as an ordinary citizen and goes in the queue for free darshan, he could find out the situation prevailing there.

The letter prompted the Madurai bench to suo motu (on its own) take up the issue by treating it as a public interest litigation.

It then directed the Madurai collector and joint commissioner of the Hindu religious and charitable endowment department (HR&CE) to inspect the temple and file a report, which the officials did.