Andhra Pradesh High Court hears argument against VIP darshan at Tirupati

VIJAYAWADA: The division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court at Amaravati comprising acting Chief Justice C Praveen Kumar and Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy heard arguments against the grant of VIP break darshan at Tirumala.

The petitioner counsel, Umesh Chandra PVG, requested the court to declare the action of respondents in granting VIP break darshan to a specific category of devotees as illegal, unconstitutional, arbitrary and ultra vires of Articles 14, 25 and 26 of the Constitution of India and also remove the categorisation of devotees for darshan conferring different worshipping modes for devotees as categorised by the Andhra Pradesh government and TTD Board.

The counsel further contended that the VIP break darshan has been categorised into L1, L2 and L3 by neither defining the terms nor providing rationale for their definition. He also informed the court that the government can impose restrictions on the Freedom of Religion of an individual only on three grounds i.e, morality, health and public order and urged the bench to seek on which of the aforementioned grounds did the VIP darshan was granted.