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NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 4:

        The Supreme Court will tomorrow hear a Special Leave Petition (SLP) seeking masking of the Periyar statue in front of Srirangam Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, pending disposal of the case in the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court.

        The SLP seeking covering the Periyar statue in front of the temple came up before a bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice SH Kapadia on 15 December and the matter was posted to 5 January after admission.

        The petition was filed by AS Kannan, seeking an interim injunction to stop the formal unveiling of the Periyar statue besides its masking in its current controversial location.

        Appearing for the petitioner Mukul Rohtagi said if the statue was allowed to be in its place it would infringe the freedom of religion guaranteed as a fundamental right in the Constitution. It was the duty of the State to protect the same from any injury or insult to religious sentiments.

        The statue, near the world famous Srirangam Raja Gopuram and the Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Mandapam would hurt the religious sentiments. The statue also had an inscription 'one who worships god is a barbarian.

        One who preaches about god is an idiot and one who professes any religion is a fraud,' the petitioner averred and sought restraining the Commissioner, Tiruchy and the District Collector from erecting and unveiling the statue on Ammamandapam Road at Srirangam.

        However, the bench declined to pass any orders and said the issue would be considered at due course of time. The case was then listed for hearing on 5 January 2007.

        It may be noted that a petition seeking quashing the allotment of land by Srirangam local authority to Dravidar Kazhagam would come up before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court tomorrow.