If a large church is proposed in vicinity of a temple, mala fide intentions cannot be ruled out: Madras High Court

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The Bench pointed out the Mariamman Temple in Kalapatti had been in existence for more than 100 years. File. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

“If a large church is proposed to be constructed in the vicinity of a temple, mala fide intentions cannot be ruled out. Since India is a secular nation and a pluralistic society, religious amity has to be preserved, especially when an overwhelming majority of Hindus oppose the construction of a church in close proximity to the temple,” said the Madras High Court.

A Division Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and V. Lakshminarayanan made the observations while granting an interim injunction restraining the president of the CSI Christ King Church on Kalapatti Main Road in Coimbatore city from constructing a church in close proximity to a Mariamman Temple and on a piece of land classified as a public road in revenue records.

The Judges also recorded in their order that during the course of arguments in the case, the writ petitioner N. Balasubramaniyam’s counsel, D. Baskar, had claimed that “certain fundamentalist organisations have become emboldened” following the change of government headed by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay and posters had sprung across the State calling for construction of churches in every village.

He also said that the Legislative Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar, who claims to have distributed thousands of free copies of the Bible, quoted biblical verses in his inaugural address to the Legislative Assembly. He noted that the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam party did not raise any objection when the Leader of the Opposition, Udhayanidhi Stalin, called for “the annihilation of Sanatana Dharma” in his address to the Assembly.

The Bench pointed out the Mariamman Temple in Kalapatti had been in existence for more than 100 years. Of the approximately 1,000 families residing in the vicinity, 950 of them were Hindus, 15 were Muslims, and a very few were Christians. Nevertheless, in 2010, the Coimbatore Collector granted permission