No ban on midnight darshan in temples for now; HR&CE reply sought

A vacation bench comprising Justice MS Ramesh and Justice GR Swaminathan before whom the plea moved by an Advocate A Ashvathaman came up for hearing on Thursday, directed the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) department to file a response to the PIL by January 8.

The petitioner had sought the court to direct the HR&CE department to ensure that none of the temples under its control is kept open for darshan during midnight of December 31.

On pointing out that Hindus celebrate only Tamil new year, which falls on April 14, the first day of Tamil month Chithirai, the petitioner said the western New Year celebrations were not part of Hindu Tamil culture and ethos.

He further noted that there were scientific reasons behind the Agama as insisting on closing the temples after the Arthajama Puja around 9 pm and opening them during the Brahma Muhurtham between 4.30 am and 6 am every day. Moreover, the Saivite temples and Vaishnavite temples could be opened during midnight only on Maha Shivaratri and Vaikunda Ekadasi respectively,” he added.

Also, justifying his plea, the petitioner pointed out that the Andhra Pradesh Government had issued a GO against keeping temples opened for New Year celebrations after making it clear that the Telugu new year Ugadi was the actual new year as per the Hindu tradition and English culture in Hindu temples was inappropriate.

The petitioner also noted that he is not against people visiting temples during the day on January 1. But he is only opposed to darshan being held at midnight in blatant violation of Agama.