Can’t change Tamil Nadu govt’s Thiruvalluvar Day: Madras high court

CHENNAI: Madras high court has refused to direct the Tamil Nadu govt to declare Anusham (star) in the Tamil month of Vaikasi as the birthday of poet Thiruvalluvar and as Thiruvalluvar Day. Currently, the govt celebrates Thiruvalluvar Day in the Tamil month of Thai.

Dismissing a plea moved by a Chennai-based professor on Wednesday, Justice M Dhandapani stated that in the absence of concrete material to prove the exact birthday of Thiruvalluvar, the court cannot interfere in the decision of the state to celebrate Thiruvalluvar Day in the Tamil month of Thai.

According to Samy Thiyagarajan, a Tamil professor, various Tamil scholars have confirmed that Thiruvalluvar's birthday falls on Vaikasi Anusham. Therefore, Thiruvalluvar Day should be celebrated on that day and not on Thai Anusham.

The practice, which had been in vogue to celebrate the birthday of Thiruvalluvar on Vaikasi Anusham, has been changed arbitrarily through a govt policy to the second day of Thai, which is wholly impermissible, the petitioner said.

Opposing the plea, the state submitted that the govt had ordered that Thiruvalluvar Day will be observed on the second day of Thai following Pongal, which is declared as a public holiday, and that Thiruvalluvar Mukthi Day will not be treated as a public holiday.

It was further submitted that there is neither a misleading nor forceful change of the birthday celebrations of Thiruvalluvar, and the celebration of the birthday of Thiruvalluvar has not been forbidden by the govt in any of the orders.

Recording the submissions, the court said, "Though there have been Tamil scholars who have celebrated Vaikasi Anusham as the birthday of Thiruvalluvar, however, in the absence of any proof, this court cannot issue any writ of declaration to the state to declare that Vaikasi Anusham ought to be celebrated as the birthday of Thiruvalluvar."