File reply to plea from Christians to reschedule poll date: Madras high court
Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the Election Commission of India to file its reply to the PIL, which sought to reschedule the polling date, scheduled on April 18 in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry or in the alternative to shift the election booths to any other premises convenient for the government and public, other than the schools run by the Christian community since the election date falls on Maundy Thursday and within the 'Three Holy Days” or the “Holy Triduum” of utmost religious importance for Christians and essential for Christian faith.
When the PIL filed by Most Rev. Dr. Antony Pappusamy, Archbishop and president, Tamil Nadu Bishop's Council, came up for hearing before a division bench comprising Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad, Niranjan Rajagopal, counsel for EC submitted that the representation of the petitioner was already rejected. Directing the counsel to file an affidavit, the bench posted to March 21, further hearing of the case.
According to petitioner, on Maundy Thursday, on the eve of the crucifixion and death of Jesus on Good Friday, 'The Last Supper' takes place on Maundy Thursday, wherein Lord Jesus Christ founded the Holy Eucharist. The 3 days of the Holy Week called 'Holy Triduum' (Holy Three Days) is on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, he added.
He said due to this important religious phenomenon, all the three days were observed in spiritual discipline with respective religious ceremonies. Thousands of people will visit all the churches and spend hours of prayer in and around the church personally and in groups, culminating in community celebrations of official liturgy in the form of religious worship, as mandated by the Church.
There were two difficulties faced in this context. That was the timing and the venue. Firstly, in most of the churches, in the villages and towns, there were schools located within the church premises. The Catholic Church was running around 2,800 schools. All other schools were aided or partly aided Tamil Medium Schools.
Most of these aided schools were traditionally used by the government as election booths, for any election. When school was notified as an election booth, a specified radius and its perimeter will become a security zone, with restricted movements. Even on the previous day, these premises will be taken over by
the security forces and go under their control. It will be mutually incompatible, both for security concern as well as for the religious activity on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. It was not a question of few hours of prayer.
Throughout night, there will be prayers. Almost all the three days, there will be prayer and continuous religious activity in the church campus. People will be flowing in and out of the churches. Restriction of any movement of the people visiting the churches will be problematic. Secondly, as almost all the Christians will be deeply involved in religious activities on Maundy Thursday, in the respective churches, which may adversely affect the percentage of voting, he added.
