‘Calculated indignity’: Madras High Court orders strict action against throwing footwear at Chithirai festival devotees

Justice L Victoria Gowri said the Chithirai festival represents the confluence of the Meenakshi Amman Temple traditions and the Kallazhagar Temple traditions, uniting Shaivite and Vaishnavite streams.

“The acts complained of cannot be trivialised as stray hooliganism. Throwing chappals upon devotees participating in a divine procession carries a symbolic insult. It seeks to pollute sanctity through calculated indignity. Such acts offend not merely public order but constitutional morality,” the Madras High Court order read.

The court further observed that the Chithirai festival is not merely a religious event but a “grand testimony to the endurance of Tamil civilisation”. “The journey of Lord Kallazhagar into the Vaigai is not simply a ritual crossing. It is poetry in motion, history in procession, and faith in collective embodiment,” it added.

The Madras High Court also noted that preserving such festivals is not merely about preserving ritual but about preserving the “beauty and comity of the secular spirit” of this democratic republic. “If such a spectacle, nourished by time immemorial, is sought to be sullied by acts of vulgar disruption, the State cannot remain a passive spectator,” the court held in its April 29 order.

‘Grave affront to public decency’

• The Madras High Court pointed out that India’s secular spirit requires the protection of every faith against unlawful insult and disturbance.
• It was further added that the court cannot brush aside the seriousness of such acts as isolated disturbances.
• It was emphasised that they strike at the heart of constitutional freedoms, which guarantee to every citizen the freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion and equally protect religious customs and observances from unlawful interference.
• Referring to the video shown in the courtroom concerning the arrangements claimed in the previous year, the Madras High Court stated that the apprehension of the petitioner cannot be dismissed as speculative.
• The court pointed out that throwing chappals upon devotees in a religious procession amounts to a “grave affront” to public decency, religious harmony and social fraternity and must be dealt with an iron hand.
• Miscreants attempting to disrupt a sacred event “cannot claim indulgence under the guise of ordinary disorderly conduct”, it added.

‘Anti-social elements’

The grievance of the petitioner was that anti-social elements were indulging in the deplorable act of throwing chappals (footwear) upon devotees participating in the sacred procession of Lord Kallazhagar Temple, particularly during the revered ceremonial journey culminating in the deity’s entry into the Vaigai River.

Such repeated incidents of throwing footwear at devotees took place along the procession route of about 7.6 kilometres within city limits and also at the riverbed during the ceremonial entry of Lord Kallazhagar, it was added.

It was the case of the petitioner that, despite a representation on April 14, no effective preventive strategy specifically addressing such acts had been communicated.

The petitioner submitted that unless immediate judicial intervention is made, the sanctity of the ongoing festival would stand “imperilled”.

Directions to prevent such actions

• The Madras High Court directed the authorities to deploy 15 to 20 striking force vehicles along the 7.6-km city route of the procession.
• These are specialised vehicles used by defence, paramilitary, and specialised forces for rapid, off-road, and high-mobility missions.
• It highlighted that any person found indulging in throwing chappals or any similar disruptive act against the procession or devotees shall be immediately apprehended on the spot and proceeded against in accordance with the law.
• Preventive and intelligence-based policing shall be intensified throughout the festival period.
• Any attempt to desecrate or disrupt the sanctity of the procession shall be dealt with sternly and without hesitation.

Culture and Chithirai festival

The Madras High Court pointed out that the Chithirai festival is not merely a temple event but a civilizational continuum, a living embodiment of Tamil heritage, rooted in Sangam culture and nourished through centuries.

It represents the confluence of the Meenakshi Amman Temple traditions and the Kallazhagar Temple traditions, symbolically uniting Shaivite and Vaishnavite streams in a singular expression of devotional harmony.

The Pattabhishekam of Goddess Meenakshi, the celestial Thirukalyanam, and the arrival of Lord Kallazhagar into the Vaigai are not just isolated rituals, but represent the culmination of Tamil social memory, agrarian gratitude, artistic expression, collective devotion and communal cohesion, it stated.

The court mentioned that Madurai, celebrated in Sangam literature as Koodal, has for millennia stood as the cultural capital of Tamil civilisation.

This annual festival is a reminder that “faith in India” is not a private abstraction but a public cultural experience woven into the life of the people.

The Madras High Court mentioned that the participation of lakhs of devotees, cutting across caste, creed and economic barriers, transforms the festival into a living expression of secular fraternity, secularism in its truest Indian sense.

It added that any act intended to insult or disrupt such a sacred observance has implications transcending ordinary breach of peace.