The Madurai bench of the High Court has raised serious concerns over the steep darshan fees charged at the Thiruchendur Subramaniaswamy Temple during the Kanda Sashti festival. In response to a petition filed by Ramkumar Adithan of Tiruchendur, the court has issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government seeking clarification on the order allowing additional fees to be levied during the festival.
Kanda Sashti, celebrated for six days at the Tiruchendur temple, draws over one lakh devotees each day. While the temple generally offers free darshan, a quick darshan option is available for ₹100 fees on regular days. However, the fee is doubled to ₹200 on special days. Last year, during the Kanda Sashti festival, the quick darshan fee was hiked to ₹1,000 per person, leading to widespread protests from around 200 devotees, who were subsequently arrested. Following the backlash, the temple administration rolled back the additional charge.
In his petition, Ramkumar Adithan objected to reintroducing the ₹1,000 quick darshan fee for this year’s Kanda Sashti festival, arguing that such a high charge would make it difficult for poorer devotees to worship. He proposed that the temple administration should issue advance tokens through an Aadhaar-based online system to manage the crowd instead of charging exorbitant fees.
During the hearing, Justices Subramanian and Victoria Gowri sharply questioned the rationale behind the high fees. “If the darshan fee is one thousand or two thousand rupees, how will poor people have darshan?” they asked. “Can they afford this amount? Shouldn’t poor people also be able to worship? Is the temple only for the rich?“
The court has ordered the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Commissioner and the Thoothukudi District Collector to respond to these concerns and adjourned the case until 7 November 2024.
(With inputs from OneIndia Tamil)
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