NEW DELHI: Several opposition MPs, led by the DMK, on Tuesday submitted a notice to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to move a motion for the removal of Madras High Court Judge GR Swaminathan who ordered Subramaniya Swamy temple authorities to ensure that a lamp is lit at the deepathoon (pillar) near a dargah.
On December 1, a single judge bench of Justice Swaminathan had held that the Arulmighu Subramania Swamy temple was duty-bound to light the lamp at the deepathoon, a stone lamp pillar located on the Thiruparankundram hillock close to the dargah.
It had said that doing so would not encroach upon the rights of the adjacent dargah or the Muslim community. When the order remained unimplemented, the single judge passed another order on December 3 permitting devotees themselves to light the lamp and directed the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to ensure their protection. This led the DMK-led state government to move to the top court.
DMK parliamentary party leader Kanimozhi, the party's Lok Sabha leader TR Baalu, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra handed the notice with over 120 signatures for moving a motion for the removal of the judge.
The issue of lighting of the traditional lamp at the hilltop temple near Madurai rocked the Lok Sabha last Friday, with Baalu accusing the BJP of trying to "ignite" communal tensions in Tamil Nadu and Union minister L Murugan hitting back at the Tamil Nadu government for "denying the right to worship".
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider hearing a plea of the Tamil Nadu government challenging the Madras High Court order.
The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court last Thursday had dismissed an intra-court appeal filed by the Madurai district collector and the city police commissioner, upholding a single-judge order that allowed devotees to light the lamp.