Chennai: Pointing out that the election date falls on ‘Maundy Thursday’ and within the ‘Three Holy Days’ or the ‘Holy Tridum’ of utmost religious importance for Christians and essential for Christian faith, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Madras high court to direct the Election Commission to reschedule the polling date, which is scheduled on April 18 in Tamil Nadu and Puduchery, or in the alternative, to shift the election booths to any other premises convenient for the government and public, other than the schools run by the Christian community.

The PIL filed by Most Rev. Dr. Antony Pappusamy, Archbishop and president, Tamil Nadu Bishop’s Council, will come up for hearing on March 19 before a division bench comprising Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad.

According to the petitioner, for the Christian community, numbering around 50 lakh in Tamil Nadu, the ‘Holy Week’ starts with Palm Sunday on April 14, and culminates on Easter Sunday. The entire Christian religion revolves around the detention, passion and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Way of the Cross and the crucifixion on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter Sunday.

The entire week is called ‘Holy Week’. On Maundy Thursday, the eve of the crucifixion and death of Jesus on Good Friday, ‘The Last Supper’ takes place, wherein Lord Jesus Christ founded the ‘Holy Eucharist’, he added.

Thousands will visit the churches and spend hours of prayer in and around the church personally and in groups, culminating in community celebrations of official liturgy, as mandated by the Church. There are two difficulties faced in this context. That was the timing and the venue.

Firstly, in most of the churches in villages and towns, there were schools located within the church premises. The Catholic Church was running around 2,800 schools. All other schools were aided or partly aided Tamil medium schools. Most of these aided schools were traditionally used by the government as election booths. When a school is notified as an election booth, a specified radius and its perimeter will become a security zone. Even on the previous day, these premises will be taken over by security forces. It will be mutually incompatible, both for security concern as well as for the religious activity on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. It is not a question of a few hours of prayer. In almost all the three days, there will be prayers and continuous religious activity in the church campus, he added.

Secondly, as almost all Christians will be deeply involved in religious activities on Maundy Thursday in their respective churches, this may adversely affect the percentage of voting. For the said reason, by tradition, the Christian Schools usually declare a local holiday on Maundy Thursday.

Taking into account these constraints, both for the Christian community and for the establishment conducting the elections, the petitioner submitted a memorandum to the Election Commissioner. But, there was no response, he added.