Madras HC stays Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's meditation camp in Thanjavur

The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Friday stayed a two-day meditation camp organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Foundation at the Brihadishvara temple in Thanjavur, which is a UNESCO heritage site.

The court order came hours before the event was supposed to begin on Friday in response to a public interest litigation which sought cancellation of permission granted to a private event at a place of worship. Following the stay, the event was shifted to a private wedding hall in Thanjavur by the organisers.

A division bench of Justice KK Sasidharan and Justice PD Audikesaavalu granted an interim stay on the impending event and directed the Thanjavur district administration to ensure all temporary structures set up on the temple premises are removed.

Controversy erupted over the event on Thursday after pictures of the large pandal set up by AOL on the temple grounds began to do the rounds on social media. The event was supposed to begin at 6 pm on Friday and over 800 guests were expected. Ravi Shankar was to conduct a discourse of Kashmiri Shaivism. However, heritage experts and political parties condemned the Archaeological Society of India's decision to permit the private event at the temple.

Following this, protests broke out outside the temple on Friday morning and N Venakatesh, a resident of Kumbakonam filed a petition in court opposing the event. He pointed out that AOL had already been fined by the National Green Tribunal for 'damaging' the Yamuna river bank during an event in 2016.

The petitioner questioned why an offender was being allowed to carry out an event at a UNESCO world heritage site. In addition to this, he pointed out that it is a 1000-year-old temple and setting up tents could weaken its structure in addition to the threat of pollution at the site.

After hearing these arguments, the court pointed out that a 'meditation camp' could be held at a private hall and questioned why it was being organised at a temple. Apprehensions regarding fire safety were also raised. The counsel for Art of Living claimed that such private event had been allowed on temple premises before but the state government denied this.