Faith

Madras High Court: non-Hindus need signed undertaking to enter Agamic temples

Madurai, India • October 27, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

Editorial illustration: a tall carved South Indian Hindu temple tower at dawn

Editorial illustration — Press Pass USA

Non-Hindus cannot enter Agamic temples in Tamil Nadu without affirming their reverence for the presiding deity and agreeing to follow the temple's customs, the Madras High Court held in an October 23 judgment reported Tuesday.

A Division Bench of Justices G. R. Swaminathan and P. Murugan held that non-Hindus who do not furnish such an undertaking, in the format prescribed by the institution concerned, cannot be permitted even to enter the temple premises — and specifically cannot cross the flag-pole, or kodimaram. The case is Thangam Venkatesh v. State of Tamil Nadu.

The court stressed that the ruling is confined to Agamic temples — temples whose construction, rituals and worship follow the Agamas, the traditional scriptures. It contrasted them with shrines such as those of Lord Ayyappa and Shirdi Sai Baba, which draw devotees across religious communities.

At the same time, the bench held that temple-entry restrictions historically imposed on certain Hindu castes under Agamic practices could no longer withstand constitutional scrutiny. “Constitution ranks paramount and such regressive theological injunctions have to necessarily give way,” the court said — while holding that the Agamic injunctions continue to apply to non-Hindus who do not sign the undertaking.

The ruling builds on earlier directions in the same line of cases, including a January 2024 order barring non-Hindus from proceeding beyond a temple's flagstaff without recording an undertaking of faith in the deity and agreeing to follow Hindu customs.

Sources: Bar and Bench (Oct 27, 2026); Live Law (Oct 27, 2026); Madras High Court judgment, Oct 23, 2026.