CHENNAI: Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Government of Tamil Nadu to stop devotees from carrying mobile phones inside all the temples of the state, so as to "maintain purity and sanctity."
This follows a notice that the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department received from the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court in November regarding a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought to ban the use and possession of smartphones inside the Tiruchendur Subramaniya Swamy temple.
A division bench of Justices R Mahadevan and J Sathya Narayana Prasad said, devotees' attention is diverted from the purpose of their visit to the shrine by their gadgets. The justices ordered that cell phone use within temples be prohibited by the Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department, which is responsible for several renowned temples in Tamil Nadu. Temples are wonderful institutions that have historically played a significant role in everyone's life. It is essential to people's socio-cultural and economic existence in addition to being a place of worship.
It is a living tradition that still draws hundreds of thousands of devotees seeking to experience divinity and spirituality offered by the temple. The systems and structures which support this experience, make a temple to have its own management needs,” the court said. While agreeing that there cannot be any dispute that under Article 25 of the Constitution, all persons are entitled to freely profess, practice and propagate religion, the judges said,
The court noticed that mobile phone prohibition was implemented in Sri Krishna Temple at Guruvayur (Kerala), Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple at Madurai and Sri Venkateswara Temple at Tirupati and they had security counters to deposit mobile phones before entering the temple premises.
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