More than 120 opposition Members of Parliament from the Congress-led INDIA alliance, including prominent leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Akhilesh Yadav, and several Trinamool Congress and Left MPs, formally submitted an impeachment notice against Madras High Court Justice G.R. Swaminathan to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday afternoon, marking one of the rarest constitutional actions against a sitting high court judge in India’s history.

The motion, moved under Article 217 read with Article 124(4) of the Constitution, has been spearheaded by DMK’s Lok Sabha floor leader Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and carries the full weight of the opposition bloc, with sources confirming that signatures were gathered in less than 48 hours, reflecting both the sensitivity of the issue and the DMK’s determination to shield Tamil Nadu from what it calls deliberate communal provocation ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.

The flashpoint is Justice Swaminathan’s controversial December 1 order in the centuries-old Thirupparankundram Subramaniaswamy temple dispute, where he ruled that the traditional “deepathon” festival lamp must also be lit on an ancient upper pillar halfway up the sacred hill—officially recognised as temple property—rather than exclusively at the lower pillar used for over 100 years, emphasising the legal necessity of visibly asserting ownership despite the pillar’s proximity to a 14th-century dargah atop the same hill.

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Both the Tamil Nadu government and the dargah administration immediately flagged the order as a potential trigger for communal unrest in the election-bound state; temple authorities openly defied it on December 3, prompting the judge to issue a second, stricter directive authorising petitioners and devotees to ascend the hill under armed Central Industrial Security Force escort—an extraordinary deployment that sparked outrage over alleged judicial overreach and led to tense confrontations as prohibitory orders were hastily imposed.

With a division bench of the Madras High Court upholding the single-judge ruling and the state government knocking on the doors of the Supreme Court for urgent relief, the ruling DMK and its national allies have now escalated the battle to Parliament, transforming a local temple ritual dispute into a full-scale confrontation between the Tamil Nadu establishment and a section of the higher judiciary, with the threat of impeachment hanging like a sword over Justice Swaminathan.

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