The Madras High Court recently ordered a stone to be removed from the entrance of a private property, as there was an attempt to treat it like an idol to be worshipped.
The bench of Justice N Anand Venkatesh, while giving directions in the matter, lamented the “superstitious beliefs” still prevalent in the country. “It is quite unfortunate that such superstitious beliefs continue to prevail in society and people do not seem to evolve by passage of time,” the judge said.
The court was dealing with a writ petition filed by a man, identified as E Shakthi Murugan, who said the stone had been placed in front of his property, and when he attempted to remove it, he faced resistance. He submitted that the stone had been wrapped in a green cloth and people had started treating it as an idol. He also placed on record some photographs of the stone.
Murugan further said though he had complained of this to the police, he did not get protection that could enable him to remove the stone. He said in such a situation, he could not approach the civil court.
Taking note of the submission and documents on record, the high court said a “very funny situation” would arise if the landlord was forced to go to the civil court to determine if the object was simply a stone or an idol.
“No useful purpose will be served by initiating proceedings before the civil court and, in fact, it will be a waste of judicial time to ponder over such a frivolous issue,” the bench said.
The HC, therefore, directed the assistant commissioner of police of Pallavaram Range in Chengalpattu district to remove the stone from the entrance of the petitioner’s property. The court allowed one week for the directions to be complied with.
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