SC refuses to stay Madras HC order on Thiruparankundram DeepamNew Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on a plea filed by the Tamil Nadu government challenging a Madras High Court order permitting the lighting of the traditional Karthigai Deepam at the ‘deepa thoon’ (lamp pillar) situated atop the Thiruparankundram hill near a dargah in Madurai district. A Bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul M. Pancholi sought responses from the original writ petitioners before the Madras High Court and other respondents and tagged the matter with a connected pending case for further hearing. However, the apex court declined the state government’s request for an ex parte stay on the operation of the Madras High Court’s order and merely issued notice on the stay application. During the hearing, the Justice Kumar-led Bench questioned the delay in approaching the apex court, asking why the Tamil Nadu government had filed the petition only in June against a High Court order passed in January. Earlier this year, the Madras High Court’s Madurai Bench had partly upheld an earlier order passed by single-judge Justice G.R.