Chennai: Madras HC on Friday directed organisers of Vinayaga Chathurti festivities to submit the relevant applications seeking permission to conduct the event by September 8, along with necessary undertaking and consent of landowners, adoption of commercial tariff for electricity consumption charges, to the deputy superintendent of police/assistant commissioner of the police of the respective jurisdictions.
When petitions challenging recent GO issued by the government stipulating certain conditions came up for hearing on Friday, Justice R. Mahadevan passed the interim order and stated that these applications shall be received by any one of the officers present in the office of the DSP in respect of outskirts and in the office of the assistant commissioner of police in respect of cities, forthwith.
The DSP/ACP of the jurisdictions, shall consider the applications and communicate the order, then and there or in any event, by 5.00 pm on September 10, 2018, to the representatives, who shall be present on that day.
The officer concerned shall ensure the compliance of the directions issued by the division bench of this court. And, the date, time and place with regard to procession and immersion of idols shall be fixed by the authority concerned, as per their procedure, the judge said.
The judge also directed the representatives of the organisers shall co-operate with the officials for celebrating the festival and the procession and immersion of idols in a peaceful manner and there shall be no untoward incident on account of the same.
According to petitioners the conditions imposed by the state in an order dated on August 9 are onerous and highly impracticable for conduct of the procession in question. In the petition, they challenged the notification.
However, advocate general submitted that keeping with the highly communally sensitive nature of the event and the procession in question passing through major pockets of other religions, the impugned GO was issued with a view to maintain public peace, tranquility, public safety, regulation of traffic and control of pollution.
