Thiruppurankundram hill Dargah: Prayers only during festival days, says Supreme Court

Supreme Court denies plea to allow daily prayers at Sikkandar Badhusha Avuliya Dargah, restricting them to festival days only.

The Supreme Court on Monday (February 9, 2026) refused to entertain a challenge to Madras High Court orders restricting the conduct of prayer, including namaz, at Nellithoppu area of the Sikkandar Badhusha Avuliya Dargah, located atop the Thiruppurankundram hill in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu, during Ramzan and Bakrid festival days alone.

Appearing before a Bench headed by Justice Aravind Kumar, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Imam Hussain, said the High Court’s finding that “Mohammedans could be permitted to offer their prayers in Neilithoppu area during Ramzan and Bakrid festival days alone… without disturbing the traditional footsteps which lead to Kasi Vishwanathar Temple” had crossed the “constitutional boundary”.

The petition said the High Court had merely endorsed a peace committee understanding with regard to performance of namaz at Nellithoppu during Ramzan and Bakrid.

“The High Court took this situational compromise meant to avert law and order issues and elevated it into a permanent judicial rule that prayer should be confined to Ramzan and Bakrid alone. It is submitted that a temporary understanding reached in an administrative meeting cannot crystallise into a Constitutional ceiling on religious practice,” Mr. Bhushan argued.

He submitted from the petition that the High Court, without pointing to any specific statutory authority, dictated the occasions on which namaz, an “essential religious practice”, could be observed.

The petition challenged the High Court’s finding that the practice of offering namaz was only of a “recent origin”.