The bench of Justice P Velmurugan and Justice KK Ramakrishnan noted that the statue was installed on the temple land without getting approval from the temple authorities or from the District Collector. The court thus ordered the District Collector to remove the statue and to place it in some other suitable place.

“Since the statue is installed in the temple land without obtaining permission either from the temple authority or from the District Collector or from any other competent authority, the 4th respondent / District Collector is directed to remove the said statue safely from the temple land and also place it in some other suitable place within a period of four weeks from today and file a report,” the court said.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a devotee, Rama Ravikumar, seeking directions to the authorities to remove the statue in light of the recommendations made by the Joint Commissioner, HR & CE Department.

When the case was first taken up, the court had directed the Collector to instruct the Inspector of Police to physically inspect the place where the statue is located and file a rough sketch about the distance between the temple entrance and the wall and also indicating the place of the statue. The court had also directed the collector to suggest whether there was any alternate place for the statue to be put up outside the temple.

Following the court's direction, a physical inspection of the place was conducted, and the court was informed that the statue is located inside the temple property and not on any government poramboke land.

Considering the same, the court directed that the statue be removed from temple land.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. J. Jaaswant

Counsel for Respondents: Mr. K. K. Udayakumar, Govt. Advocate, Mr. S. I. Muthiah, Additional Govt. Pleader, Mr. J. Vishnu, Govt. Advocate (Crl. Side), Mr. Chandrasekar, Standing Counsel