Religious faith and beliefs are fundamental. It is a belief that is fundamental to a man. It is a personal belief and that too a sacred right of one. One has a right to profess one’s religion and the doctrines laid by it. The Constitutional layers, the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary should give paramount importance to the faith of the individual and should not do anything directly or inadvertently that even remotely hurt the sentiments of that individual. In recent times, various controversies emerge, where unintentionally, the religious faiths is dragged hurting the sentiments of the believers. .
There was recently a case against street meetings organized by various political parties where the roads were used by the audience while the speakers used to address them from the peripheral of the road. There are permanent sheds constructed outside the Corporation office, where many public meetings of protest are held. In front of the Secretariat in the capital also, there are regular satyagrahas organized by different political parties and different protesting people against something they find irritating according to their subjective arguments.
The division bench of the High court held that street meetings at junctions or roadsides, pavements which obstructed the freedom of other people to make use of the same places for moving as unlawful and held that such meetings need to be banned. When the government filed a revision petition against curbs on roadside public meetings, the Court made a passing reference to the Attukal Pongala festival of the temple held on the roads on the capital city. The court went on to remark that it would be best if the roads are left free and the assembly of women, as part of the festival, takes place in various stadia in the Capital city.
The famed Pongala festival of the temple held February-March every year witnesses thousands of women line up along roads in the capital city and prepare an offering of cooked rice for the presiding deity, believed to be an incarnation of Kannaki, the central character of the Tamil epic "Silappathikaaram". This temple is dedicated to Attukal Bhagavathy. The ritual of cooking the offering starts when the chief priest lights a pot of fire brought from the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. The fire is then passed on to the devotees, who sit on the roadside and their kiln is lit. The offering is prepared using rice, jaggery and coconut and is cooked in three to four hours’ time. It is only when the priest, around 3 p.m., starts spraying sacred water from the temple on the cooked rice that the women devotees pack up their offerings and begin their return journey. This event recorded in the Guinness Book of World record for the largest number of people converging for a temple event (1.5 million women). If all the stadium in Kerala are used, the sanctity of the festival, that the priest lights the first fire and passes on the pyre, so that it passes on to the last person, and it is part of a religious ritual that people participate in, would be lost.
There are street processions prevalent amongst religious communities. Among the Brahmin caste, there is a procession on the eve of marriage known as ‘mapillaazappu’, when the bride groom accompanied by kinsmen of the bride and bridegroom go to the family temple of the bride and then come back to the Kalyana mandap. It is a procession of people, and if it is interpreted as obstructing traffic, hence cannot be held, is against the spirit of unconceived legal right conferred. Any body can walk through a road, so as to cause no disturbance to the right of the other.
When Pope Paul II came to Mumbai, he held a prayer meeting on the Byculla beach, but the disciples occupied the whole roads abutting the beach, bringing the traffic to the halt for nearly two hours. (In 1962). When Queen Elizabeth visited Chennai in 1960, the Mount Road was blocked for three hours. Can Police block the road for hours just as s security measure for a dignitary?
There are temple festivals, when caparisoned elephants and a sea of humanity participate. One such example is the Trichur Pooram. When the prime Minister recently visited Kanpur, road restrictions prevented an ordinary citizen to carry his injured boy to the nearby hospital. He had to take circuitous Road resulting in half an hour delay and the death of the boy. Can Police block the entire road citing security reasons, and prevent people from taking the road during emergency.
A funeral procession, if it is not allowed, affects the sentiment of the family. MGR’s funeral procession had millions of people, and it blocked the entire Mount Road stretch upto Beach from cathedral Road, for more than 24 hours. If a particular stretch of Road, if used by some for years together, becomes a road, as the Law of adverse possession apply.
The Courts are trustees to uphold the dignity of the constitution. Uphold the law, protect righteous against tyranny, oppression, suppression. Each act has to be viewed in different contexts, and no law can be uniformally applied to all events. No straight jacket law is available in any law books, cited cases in All India Reporter, or in the Indian Constitution. We have to obey Law, abide by Law and practice Law according to Rule of Law. Differences in circumstances would alter the judicial prouncements. But every citizen of India should take care to see that he does not hurt the sentiment of another.
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There was recently a case against street meetings organized by various political parties where the roads were used by the audience while the speakers used to address them from the peripheral of the road. There are permanent sheds constructed outside the Corporation office, where many public meetings of protest are held. In front of the Secretariat in the capital also, there are regular satyagrahas organized by different political parties and different protesting people against something they find irritating according to their subjective arguments.
The division bench of the High court held that street meetings at junctions or roadsides, pavements which obstructed the freedom of other people to make use of the same places for moving as unlawful and held that such meetings need to be banned. When the government filed a revision petition against curbs on roadside public meetings, the Court made a passing reference to the Attukal Pongala festival of the temple held on the roads on the capital city. The court went on to remark that it would be best if the roads are left free and the assembly of women, as part of the festival, takes place in various stadia in the Capital city.
The famed Pongala festival of the temple held February-March every year witnesses thousands of women line up along roads in the capital city and prepare an offering of cooked rice for the presiding deity, believed to be an incarnation of Kannaki, the central character of the Tamil epic "Silappathikaaram". This temple is dedicated to Attukal Bhagavathy. The ritual of cooking the offering starts when the chief priest lights a pot of fire brought from the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. The fire is then passed on to the devotees, who sit on the roadside and their kiln is lit. The offering is prepared using rice, jaggery and coconut and is cooked in three to four hours’ time. It is only when the priest, around 3 p.m., starts spraying sacred water from the temple on the cooked rice that the women devotees pack up their offerings and begin their return journey. This event recorded in the Guinness Book of World record for the largest number of people converging for a temple event (1.5 million women). If all the stadium in Kerala are used, the sanctity of the festival, that the priest lights the first fire and passes on the pyre, so that it passes on to the last person, and it is part of a religious ritual that people participate in, would be lost.
There are street processions prevalent amongst religious communities. Among the Brahmin caste, there is a procession on the eve of marriage known as ‘mapillaazappu’, when the bride groom accompanied by kinsmen of the bride and bridegroom go to the family temple of the bride and then come back to the Kalyana mandap. It is a procession of people, and if it is interpreted as obstructing traffic, hence cannot be held, is against the spirit of unconceived legal right conferred. Any body can walk through a road, so as to cause no disturbance to the right of the other.
When Pope Paul II came to Mumbai, he held a prayer meeting on the Byculla beach, but the disciples occupied the whole roads abutting the beach, bringing the traffic to the halt for nearly two hours. (In 1962). When Queen Elizabeth visited Chennai in 1960, the Mount Road was blocked for three hours. Can Police block the road for hours just as s security measure for a dignitary?
There are temple festivals, when caparisoned elephants and a sea of humanity participate. One such example is the Trichur Pooram. When the prime Minister recently visited Kanpur, road restrictions prevented an ordinary citizen to carry his injured boy to the nearby hospital. He had to take circuitous Road resulting in half an hour delay and the death of the boy. Can Police block the entire road citing security reasons, and prevent people from taking the road during emergency.
A funeral procession, if it is not allowed, affects the sentiment of the family. MGR’s funeral procession had millions of people, and it blocked the entire Mount Road stretch upto Beach from cathedral Road, for more than 24 hours. If a particular stretch of Road, if used by some for years together, becomes a road, as the Law of adverse possession apply.
The Courts are trustees to uphold the dignity of the constitution. Uphold the law, protect righteous against tyranny, oppression, suppression. Each act has to be viewed in different contexts, and no law can be uniformally applied to all events. No straight jacket law is available in any law books, cited cases in All India Reporter, or in the Indian Constitution. We have to obey Law, abide by Law and practice Law according to Rule of Law. Differences in circumstances would alter the judicial prouncements. But every citizen of India should take care to see that he does not hurt the sentiment of another.
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