Bengaluru, Jan. 7 -- The Madras high court on Tuesday allowed the lighting of the Karthigai Deepam lamp on the Thiruparankundram Hills in Madurai, and pulled up the Tamil Nadu government for invoking an "imaginary ghost" of disturbance to law and order to resist a long-standing Tamil tradition for "its own convenience." A bench of Justices G Jayachandran and KK Ramakrishnan upheld a December 1 order of Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madurai bench of the court, who directed that a lamp be lit atop the hill as part of the Tamil Karthigai Deepam festival. The court held that the state failed to place any concrete material to show that lighting the Karthigai Deepam lamp would disturb public order, and said the government had relied only on assumptions and apprehensions, which cannot justify restricting a religious practice. "We find that the apprehension expressed by the district administration regarding probability of disturbance to the public peace is nothing but an imaginary ghost created by them for their convenience sake and to put one community against another community under suspicion and constant mistrust," the high court said. It added that instead of treating the festival as an opportunity to foster peace and harmony, the State had attempted to draw political mileage by pitting one community against another. "It is ridiculous and hard to believe the fear of the mighty State that by allowing representatives of devasthanam to light a lamp at the stone pillar on a particular day in a year will cause disturbance to public peace. Of course, it may happen only if such a disturbance is sponsored by the State itself. We pray that no State should stoop to that level to achieve their political agenda," the Court said. While permitting the lighting of the lamp, the bench noted that the Thiruparankundram Hills is a protected site. It directed that any activity there, including the lighting of the lamp and the number of persons permitted to attend, must be fixed through consultation between the temple administration, the Archaeological Survey of India, and the local police. The verdict came on a batch of appeals challenging the single judge's order of December 1, 2025, permitting the lighting of Karthigai Deepam at a stone pillar atop the Thiruparankundram Hills, near a dargah. The dispute on the ownership of the land where the stone pillar stands, goes back to at least a century ago. As per the state's submissions and the court's order, between 1915 and 1931, the temple authorities and the hukdars of the Sikandar Badusha Dargah fought over ownership of the hill, ending with a Privy Council decree that protected the mosque, its flagstaff and access steps, while vesting the rest in the temple....