Madras High Court: While condemning the motive of the petitioner for filing the present petition which seeks to raise divisive issues of mythological nature to create a jurisdiction of P.I.L, the Court dismissed the petition with exemplary cost of Rs.20,000.
In the present writ petition, the petitioner herein, a social worker and an editor of a local daily, had filed a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution for reducing the number of holidays declared by the Court Registrar for the Deepavali holidays. The counsel for petitioner argued that the Deepavali being a North-Indian festival, has been made popular in South-India by the migrant population. The Counsel also said that this culture is being thrust upon the State of Tamil Nadu because the last and current Chief Justice of the Court happened to be North-Indian. The Petitioner also questioned the reason for celebrating Deepavali and why Ravanaa’s effigies are burnt on that date, as he claims, this amounts to a vendetta against a section of the Dravidian people. He also claimed that India is a multicultural and heterogeneous nation, which should protect everybody’s right to worship birth, but not death. The holidays also make advocates jobless and affects the functioning of the Courts.
The bench headed by Sanjay Kishan Kaul, CJ., held that the draft of the calender is prepared by Registry and which is discussed with all the representatives of the Advocates Associations and the Moffussil Bar and thus it cannot be said to be forced on the people. Moreover, it has been said by advocates and their representatives that they need time for preparing themselves and the vacations provides them the time for doing so, and if it leaves them jobless, the same needs to be discussed by their representatives during the framing. The migrants have a constitutional right to work anywhere in the nation. The Court therefore, condemned such kind of petitions which are aimed at raising divisive issues of mythological nature on grounds of PIL jurisdiction for gaining publicity which in turn creates unrest among the people. V.Anbazhagan v. The Registrar General High Court of Madras,High Court, Chennai,2014 SCC OnLine Mad 9378, decided on 22.12.2014
