Overview
- Arguing before a Madras High Court division bench, the state and temple authorities said there is no evidence from 1862 to 2025 that the Karthigai Deepam was lit on the hilltop pillar.
- Counsel for the HR&CE Department told the court the pillar was historically used by Digambara sages and not for a Hindu ritual, asserting that such an inquiry is barred at this stage under the Act.
- The dargah’s counsel alleged the earlier single‑judge hearing shut them out, warned lighting the lamp near the shrine would draw disruptive crowds, and said any claimed custom must first be proved in a civil court given proprietary rights at the site.
- The division bench led by Justices G Jayachandran and K K Ramakrishnan is hearing the appeal against Justice G R Swaminathan’s order directing the lamp be lit at the hilltop structure, with further hearing set for December 15.
- A December 10 archaeology survey of the pillar drew objections as generating new evidence while the case is pending, and a separate order allowed a tightly limited hunger strike that saw residents stage a 50‑person fast and symbolic lamp‑lighting on December 13.