India News | Govt at Liberty to Decide on Temple Opening for Vijayadasami: HC

Chennai, Oct 12 (PTI) The Madras High Court on Tuesday granted liberty to the Tamil Nadu government to decide on keeping the temples open on Friday on which Vijayadasami falls.

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Shrines in the state are closed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in view of the covid pandemic situation.

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The vacation bench of Justices R Mahadevan and Abdul Quddhose said this when a PIL petition praying for a direction to the government to keep the temples in the state open on the auspicious Vijayadasami day, came up today.

"We leave it open to the government to decide,” the judges said.

Earlier, Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram told the bench that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has convened a meeting with experts on October 13 to consider the possibility of lifting the restriction of keeping the temples closed during the weekends.

He also added that the restriction was imposed following a communication from the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in September, which advised the State government to strictly impose the restrictions in view of the rise in new cases of covid-19. The letter also pointed out that in the months ahead several festivals are coming up. This is a critical period, when the Covid-19 protocols are to be strictly adhered to, the letter had stated.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)