The fundamental right to conduct religious processions is protected under the Constitution and cannot be curtailed by the interests of opposing groups.

Heard both sides.

2.In Ervadi Town in Tirunelveli District, there is a Muslin shrine in memory of Saints Hasan and Husain. It is known as Ervadi Dargha. Apart from this mosque, there are six other mosques in the town. Out of them, two subscribe to Thowheed Jamath principles. The stand of Thowheed group is that Islam should be practised in its pure and original form free from any other corrupting influence. They take exception to the manner of celebration of the annual Muharram Santhanakoodu festival of Ervadi Dargha. According to them, playing of music, conducting procession and rituals such as “Kuthirai pancha” ought not to be permitted. In view of the objections raised by them, the Dargha management could not conduct their festival in the traditional mode. Seeking to restrain the respondents from interfering with their right to conduct the Muharram festival in the customary fashion, this writ petition has been filed.

3.The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner reiterated all the contentions set out in the affidavit filed in support of this writ petition and called upon this Court to grant relief as prayed for. He placed reliance on the order dated 30.04.2021 made in WA Nos.743 and 2064 of 2019 in support of his contention that there cannot be any prohibition of the right to conduct religious processions.

4.The learned Special Government Pleader appearing for the revenue authorities submitted that there has been severe opposition from the adherents of Thowheed Jamath and that the writ petitions filed by the petitioners during the previous years suffered dismissals and that therefore, a departure need not be made.

5.The learned Government counsel appearing for the jurisdictional police submitted that the Muharram festival was conducted without any obstruction or objection for several decades. General public irrespective of communities and religion used to take part. Only in the year 2011, objection was raised by the Thowheed group. Certain unpleasant incidents took place. FIRs were registered. Peace committee meetings were convened almost every year. It was decided that objectionable events such as “Kuthirai Pancha”, “Santhanakoodu Procession” etc., would not be conducted. There was consensus for conducting only four events. The police have been granting permission in line with the said decision. In the year 2019, again, four criminal cases were registered. As on date, no criminal case is pending. Either they ended in acquittal or were closed as “Mistake of Fact”. The jurisdictional police have stated that based on the order to be passed by the High Court, they are ready to provide protection to ensure that there is no breach of public peace.

6.The learned Senior Counsel appearing for the fifth respondent and the learned counsel for the impleaded respondent submit that this writ petition is not maintainable in view of the orders passed during the earlier years. Orders totalling nine have been enclosed in the typed set of papers. The learned Senior Counsel would contend that the petitioner must obtain relief only in the jurisdictional civil court. He strongly objected to grant of relief in favour of the writ petitioner.

7.I carefully considered the rival contentions and went through the materials on record. The annual Muharram festival has already commenced and it is due to conclude on 17.07.2024. The contentious aspects are three, a) beat of drums b) “Kuthirai Pancha” ritual and c) “Santhanakoodu” procession.

8.“Kuthirai Pancha” event is nothing but taking a young boy mounted on a horse in procession. “Kuthirai” is Tamil word for horse. I take judicial notice of the fact that in villages, Hindus follow a custom called “Puravi Eduppu”. “Puravi” is again another Tamil word for horse. This custom appears to be region-

related rather than religion-centered.

9.”Santhanakoodu” has been defined in Cre-A Dictionary of Contemporary Tamil as follows :

“K];yPk; kfhd;fSf;fhf elj;jg;gLk;

jpUtpohtpy; rpW Njhpd; eLtpy; itj;J vLj;Jr;nry;Yk;