The Madras High Court Bench here on Monday gave four weeks’ time to Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to file its counter affidavit in a writ petition seeking a direction to prevent depiction of Thiruman, popularly known as Naamam, (a holy symbol sported by Vaishnavites on their foreheads) as a sign of those who get cheated.
A Division Bench comprising Justices S. Tamilvanan and V.S. Ravi accepted the request made by Assistant Solicitor General (ASG) G.R. Swaminathan who sought a month’s time to file the counter affidavit since almost all members of CBFC, including its chairperson Leela Samson, had resigned recently and the Board had to be reconstituted afresh by appointing new members.
During the course of arguments in the case, Mr. Justice Tamilvanan agreed with the petitioner’s counsel that no person had the right to hurt the religious sentiments of others by projecting a religious symbol in bad light. “We are in a secular country. Religious sentiments should not be hurt, whichever religion it is,” the judge observed before granting time as sought by the ASG.
When the counsel pointed out that Thiruman was actually a depiction of Lord Narayana’s lotus feet and that it was not fair on the part of movie makers to project it as sign to refer to the gullible, the judge said: “If that is so, do you know why the Lord himself sports a Thiruman on his forehead? It is because it is believed that he sports the lotus feet of his devotees.”
Periyanambi Sri Narasimha Gopalan of Ambasamudram Taluk in Tirunelveli district filed the petition seeking a direction also to the Home Secretary and Director General of Police to deny permission for agitations in which the participants sport the ‘Thiruman’ to symbolically represent that they had been cheated either by the government or others.
