09-05-2025
Facilities would be provided to devotees visiting Mangaladevi temple: State to HC
Madurai: The state on Friday informed Madras high court that all basic facilities would be provided by the
Theni district administration
to devotees visiting the Mangaladevi Kannagi Temple during the
Chitra Pournami festival
.The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by S Karthikeyan.
The petitioner stated that members of the Mangaladevi Kannagi Arakattalai in Cumbum in Theni district are allegedly printing pamphlets with the bank account number and are collecting donations illegally from the devotees.
Hence, the petitioner moved court seeking a direction to the authorities to conduct an inquiry into the illegal money collection by the trust. He also sought a direction to provide basic facilities to the counsel for Mangaladevi Kannagi Arakkattalai submitted that it is a charitable trust and they are genuinely providing
annadhanam
to the devotees by collecting voluntary donations from to the earlier direction, Theni district collector submitted a report on the steps taken to provide basic facilities to the devotees.
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The state submitted that meetings were organised with Theni and Idukki district administration officials on providing basic facilities. No one was permitted to collect money or donations from the general public.
The district administration is providing annadhanam to the devotees. If anyone intends to provide annadhanam, prior permission must be obtained from the authorities and the annadhanam should be provided in the presence of the authorities.A division bench of justice M Dhandapani and justice R Sakthivel directed that anyone who is interested in providing annadhanam should submit applications to get prior permission from the officials. It is open to the authorities to take actions against those involved in any illegalities, the judges observed and disposed of the petition.
