The Tamil Nadu government, led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, has approached the Supreme Court challenging a Madras High Court judgment that allowed the lighting of the Karthigai Deepam at a stone pillar known as the Deepathoon atop Thirupparankundram Hill, near the Sikandar Badusha Dargah.
The appeal marks the latest chapter in a dispute that has moved from a local religious controversy into a prolonged legal battle involving questions of faith, property rights, public order and the role of courts in regulating religious practices on one of Tamil Nadu’s most symbolically charged hills.
According to court records, the state filed its petition before the Supreme Court on June 11 through its counsel, B Karunakaran, challenging a January 6 judgment of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.
That judgment had upheld an earlier order passed on December 1, 2025, by Justice G R Swaminathan directing the Subramaniya Swamy Temple administration to light the ceremonial lamp at the Deepathoon during the annual Karthigai Deepam festival.
The dispute arose from a petition filed by Rama Ravikumar and others seeking permission to light the sacred lamp at the stone pillar situated near the summit of the hill.
The previous DMK government had opposed the request, arguing that the site’s proximity to the dargah could trigger communal tensions and disturb public order.
The state maintained that allowing the ritual at the hilltop location risked reopening a sensitive dispute in an area where a Hindu temple and a Muslim shrine have coexisted for generations.
The judge further held that permitting a limited number of temple representatives to light the lamp and perform worship was not an unmanageable administrative task and dismissed the state’s law-and-order concerns as unfounded.
When the matter reached a Division Bench, it largely endorsed that reasoning.
In its January 6 judgment, the Bench held that apprehensions about communal disturbances amounted to an “imaginary ghost” created for administrative convenience.
The court observed that the Deepathoon stood on land belonging to the Subramaniya Swamy Temple and stated that the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board had “no locus” in the dispute.
