Chennai: The Madras High Court has ordered that a dress code be followed by devotees visiting temples in Tamil Nadu from January 1, 2016.
The HC has held that police must ensure that male devotees wear a dhoti and a shirt or a pyjama ‘with upper cloth’ while entering temples, and women a saree or a half-saree or churidhar ‘with upper cloth’. While the children can wear ‘any fully covered dress’.
An order to this effect was passed by justice S Vaidyanathan at the Madurai bench of Madras high court last week, while hearing a writ petition seeking court’s nod to hold a song-and-dance programme at a local temple in Trichy district.
“The main objective of prescribing a dress code to devotees is to restrict some of them visiting the temple wearing improper clothing,” the judge said.
He then went on to cite examples of Christianity and Islam. “According to Christianity, a general lesson from the New Testament is that “we should dress for public worship in a way that is generally considered appropriate. Standards of dress are different from church to church and change over time, but we should avoid any style of dress that is offensive or sends a message opposing the church community’s values”.
Noting that Islam was very particular in following their own dress code, justice Vaidyanathan said women while entering the mosque should have all skin covered and ankle-length skirts or pants are required, The Times of India reported.
“Sleeves should reach to each wrist and the hair should be covered by a headscarf. Pants or skirts that are too revealing, clingy, or tight should not be worn and the dress permissible to men for worship is that they should wear long pants and plain shirts without messages or slogans when visiting mosques. Short-sleeved shirts are acceptable as long as the sleeves are not shorter than average and in the event of any doubt, it was suggested to wear long sleeves.”
The judge said Shree Somnath Temple had recently imposed a dress code banning short skirts and shorts, and that a display board had been kept about 200 metres from the temple saying, “Not allowed inside the temple improper disrespectful dress.”
TThe Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, which manages the country’s richest temple, started implementing a “dress code” for everyone, including VIP pilgrims, justice Vaidyanathan said.
“Therefore, keeping in mind all these factors, this court is of the view that prescribing dress code for devotees of the temples in Tamil Nadu is inevitable, so as to enhance the spiritual ambience among devotees thronging them,” he said.
Directing the state government to take a decision on this issue as expeditiously as possible, justice Vaidyanathan said that till a decision was taken the court-mandated dress code ‘has to be followed in all temples with effect from January 1, 2016.”
He asked the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department secretary to send circulars to all temples asking them to strictly adhere to the dress code.
Some temples such as the one in Tiruchendur that prohibit boys and men from wearing any upper cloth could follow the same system till a decision is taken at by the state government, the judge said.
Temples not coming within the purview of the government must strictly enforce their own traditional dress code to create a ‘righteous atmosphere,’ he said.