Madras HC Allows Santhanakoodu Festival At Dargah Atop Thiruparankundram Hill, Bars Animal Sacrifice

New Delhi: In a big development, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday passed orders allowing Santhanakoodu (Kanthuri) festival to be held at a dargah located on the Thiruparankundram hill in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai district.

The bench, however, imposed clear restrictions on the animal sacrifice or cooking of meat or non-vegetarian food during the event slated to take place on January 6.

The order to this effect was passed by Madras High Court after the Tamil Nadu govt informed the court this year that the festival is only for Santhanakoodu Urus, just as it was held in the year 2023.

No Permission for Kandhoori Mahautsav

Highlighting that the earlier order passed by the high court would be followed, the government added that no permission will be granted for Kandhoori Mahautsav.

Justice S Srimathy, while recording the submissions thereby directed the dargah administration to conduct Santhanakoodu Urus and restricted number of participants to 50. The judge further added that the direction must be enforced from basement to the top of the Thiruparankundram hill. Srimathy also asked the authorities to strictly comply with previous judgements passed by the high court.

The interim orders were passed by the court following a petition filed by M Manickamoorthy, who mentioned Sikandar Badusha dargah management were making arrangements for performing Kandhoori at the hill. It must be noted that animal sacrifice and serving non-vegetarian food is essential part of Kandhoori.

Meanwhile, while hearing a batch of public interest litigations, the high court earlier had held that animal sacrifice could not be permitted on the hill till such practices is established by the dargah management by reaching out to civil court.

Notices and wall posters

The dargah management, despite the order passed by the court, had put up notices and wall posters announcing that they were going to perform Kandhoori during Santhanakoodu festival celebration on the hill from Dec 12, 2025 to Jan 6, 2026.

The petitioner thereby seeking a direction to the authorities to restrain the dargah management from performing Kandhoori on Thiruparankundram hill filed the current petition.

Meanwhile, the court has posted the matter to January 20 for counter-affidavit.

Flag hoisting at the dargah

The hearing comes in backdrop of recent flag-hoisting ceremony on Sunday  where during the Santhanakoodu festival at the dargah, a group of approximately 30 residents staged a protest following the initial flag-hoisting ceremony. The protesters were demanding official permission to climb the nearby hill to perform a religious ritual of lighting a "deepam" (lamp).

Following a protest over religious ritual permissions, police clarified that only Santhanakoodu-related arrangements at the dargah were authorised. The situation sparked a political row, with the BJP claiming religious suppression by the government and the DMK accusing the opposition of provoking communal tension.

Despite the protests and political exchanges, the flag hoisting ceremony was conducted peacefully.

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