CHENNAI: Holding that mala fide intention cannot be ruled out if a church is proposed to be constructed in the vicinity of a Hindu temple, Madras high court stayed the construction of a church in Coimbatore.“Coimbatore is a communally sensitive city. It witnessed bomb blasts and bloody religious riots. The proposed church would come up within a stone’s throw from the existing Mariyamman Temple. There are only a handful of Christian families. If a large church is proposed to be constructed in the vicinity of the Mariyamman Temple, mala fide intentions cannot be ruled out,” a division bench of Justice G R Swaminathan and Justice V Lakshminarayanan said recently.The court said it would also take on record the submission of the petitioner that “following change of govt headed by chief minister C Joseph Vijay posters have appeared in some parts of Tamil Nadu calling for construction of churches in every village.”The interim order was passed recently on a plea moved by N Balasubramaniyam opposing the construction of a church at Kalapatti in Coimbatore.“The petitioner hints at the possibility of the new building being a centre of conversion activity. We are a secular nation. We are a pluralist society. Religious amity has to be preserved. If a religious right is established, then it is the duty of the state to aid in its enforcement,” the judges said.Considerations could have been different if the construction is on a patta land whose title is beyond dispute, and there is no religious structure belonging to other communities in the immediate vicinity or if there is no opposition. In the case on hand, the revenue record indicates that the site is a public road. The location is too close to an old temple. There is also vigorous opposition, the court added.The court placed on record the submission of the petitioner that the speaker of the Tamil Nadu assembly J C D Prabhakar, who proclaims that he had distributed thousands of free copies of the Bible, quoted biblical verses in his inaugural address to the legislative assembly and that Udhayanidhi Stalin, the leader of the opposition, called for annihilation of Sanatana dharma in his address in the assembly, which was not condemned or even objected to by the ruling party.
