Chennai: A petition has been filed in the Madras high court, seeking a direction to authorities to grant permission to the Blessing Church at Manjambakkam in Madhavaram to conduct prayer meetings every Sunday.
Justice M. M. Sundresh before whom the petition filed by D. Ananth, the general manager of the church came up for hearing ordered notice, returnable by February 1 to authorities.
According to Ananth, the church established by “Jesus Loves”, a registered religious and charitable trust, had purchased 2.5 acre of patta land in 2013 for the purpose of establishing the church.
However, following objection from a group of local people, claiming to be followers of Hindu religion, he lodged a complaint with the Madhavaram police, who forwarded it to the RDO in Ambattur.
After arranging a peace committee meeting, the RDO by an order dated August 31, 2015, granted permission to hold prayer meetings, subject to certain conditions. However, when applied for conducting the prayer meeting on October 11, the police declined permission on the ground that the peace panel meeting has to be conducted again.
Therefore, the petitioner had approached the high court, which on December 22 disposed of its petition while directing the police to grant the permission. It had also held that peace panel meeting need not be conducted each and every time. Accordingly, the prayer meetings were held on December 25, 27 and January 3.
However, following protest by the members of Hindu Munnani, the police had on January 9 passed an order, refusing permission to conduct prayer meetings on all Sundays. Therefore, the petitioner has filed the present petition, Ananth added.
