HC to decide validity of making 6-year-old from Badaga community a temple priest

School Education Dept. official says it is an age-old custom of Badaga community

The Madras High Court has embarked on an exercise to decide whether a six-year-old boy can be appointed as a priest, not allowed to step outside the temple for any reason and prohibited from meeting any female as per a custom reportedly followed by the Badaga community in the Nilgiris since 14th Century.

Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu have directed the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department Commissioner to file a counter affidavit after a public interest litigant questioned before the court the correctness of subjecting a child to such diktats.

D. Sivan of Kattabettu village in Kothagiri had filed the case complaining about a minor boy, now an eight-year-old, serving as a priest of the Shree Hethai Amman temple at Pedala Naduhatty village in the hill station since 2019. He claimed that the boy had been deprived of his childhood and proper education.