Chennai Oct 21 PTI The Madras High Court on Thursday suggested to the educational authorities to hold classes virtually and physically depending upon the circumstances and other related issues The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu gave the suggestion while disposing of a PIL petition from Nervazhi Iyakkam Trust seeking a direction to the authorities to frame a new scheme to vaccinate the students above 18 pursuing higher education along with teaching and non-teaching staff of the institutions that provide higher education on an immediate basis and consequently take effective steps to re-start in-person classes The judges said it needs to be recorded that the petition has served out its purpose Most students involved in higher education together with the teaching and non-teaching staff had been vaccinated At any rate those interested in getting vaccinated have had an opportunity in such regard Several institutions have also opened and classes are being conducted Virtual classes had been conducted across the board While the atmosphere of being together in a school or in a college or a university must also be experienced as much as the education imparted there students may exercise the choice of attending classes on the virtual mode subject to obtaining permission or in cases when they are unwell or the like Indeed several students who spend a lot of time travelling may be spared the daily trouble by choosing which of the days to attend classes physically and which others to attend on the virtual mode subject to any rules or regulations that may be prescribed in such regard the bench said The idea of the court was to initiate a discussion to continue some form of education on the virtual mode whether as a substitute for the physical mode or in addition to the physical mode or as a combination Papers had been filed by the University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education indicating how several courses were permitted online while others are not It might do well for all the nodal bodies to re-visit the matter without being unnecessarily rigid so that education may be more accessible for instance to persons with disabilities who may have locomotor disabilities and face difficulty in travelling However since the petition had worked itself out and there were no reports yet of a further surge though a substantial part of the festive season was already over the bench hoped that life could return to normal but with the lessons learnt from the pandemic in alternative forms of conducting business or education not to be forgotten so that the virtual mode of operation could go on hand in hand with the physical mode students the bench added PTI COR SA ROH ROH

Chennai Sep 29 PTI The Madras High Court on Wednesday upheld an order of the Election Commission of India refusing allotment of Television symbol to the Puthiya Thamilagam political party headed by Dr K Krishnasamy The Election Commission had clearly spelt out that if the petitioning political party did not contest in the requisite number of seats then the said common symbol shall not be available to their candidates the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu pointed out while dismissing a PIL petition from PT State general secretary V K Aiyar The petition sought to quash a letter dated September 17 of the ECI rejecting the plea to allot TV symbol to PT as illegal and arbitrary The bench said that the common symbol of Television was provisionally allotted to the petitioning political party and the candidates to be put up at the 2016 Assembly elections subject to the condition in paragraph 10B of the Symbols Order 1968 There is no dispute that the condition was not met At least on a direct query of the court to the petitioner the response is that the allotment of the television symbol to the petitioning political party has not been cancelled Since no case has been made out that the consequence as indicated in the Election Commissions letter of March 30 2016 did not attach to the petitioning political party as a result of the petitioning political party not complying with paragraph 10B of the Symbols Order 1968 the allotment of the television set as a common symbol is in the circumstances deemed to have been cancelled PTI COR SA APR APR

Chennai Sep 20 PTI The Madras High Court on Monday refused to vacate the interim stay granted in 2019 with regard to operation of stone crushing units in Tamil Nadu The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu refused to vacate the stay while passing further interim orders on the PIL petitions from two individuals today Originally taking into account the pollution caused by stone crushing units the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board had issued a set of guidelines in 2004 stipulating no such quarries can be allowed within 500 meters from residential areas national and state highways and places of worship There must be a gap of at least one km between one unit and the other it had said However the TNPCB in 2019 relaxed the conditions Challenging this a PIL was filed in the High Court in July same year which granted the stay Another person also moved the High Court with a plea to ban the crushing units functioning near a school in Choolagiri in Krishnagiri district After clubbing both the cases the bench observed that the principal matter is the petition filed in 2019 on which an injunction subsists and by an order dated July 19 this year the views of the TNPCB were sought upon expert scientific opinion being obtained The government authorities including the TNPCB submitted that the matter has been referred to the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute NEERI which has said that a study has to be conducted and a minimum of six months would be required before any report can be furnished Meanwhile the quarry owners approached the High Court to vacate the stay They contended that they have run out of funds upon having acquired machinery and equipment for the purpose of undertaking quarrying activity The bench however rejected the contention There is no case for the subsisting order of injunction to be vacated at this stage it said and added the time sought by TNPCB on the basis of the representation of NEERI appears to be far too long While NEERI is permitted to furnish its detailed final report within six months from date a preliminary report with possible prima facie findings should be made available towards the end of October This is to ensure that those entities which may have substantially invested in machines and equipment in contemplation of the imminent commencement of the quarrying business may then to be allowed to commence the business if a prima facie view is expressed in support of the recommendations of July 31 2019 adopted by TNPCB which have been stayed in course of the present proceedings the judges said They posted the cases for December 12 to decide on the further course of action based on the reports pertaining to the study conducted by NEERI and the one pertaining to the quarrying activities PTI COR SA APR APR

Chennai Sep 20 PTI The Madras High Court on Monday rejected a PIL plea to quash an order of the Election Commission of India affixing its seal of approval to the amendments made to the AIADMK party constitution at the general council meeting held in 2017 which saw among others O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami being elevated as Coordinator and Joint Coordinator respectively of the party The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu rejected the plea while dismissing a PIL petition from advocate B Ramkumar Adityan of Tiruchendur a party man seeking to quash the May 4 2018 order of the ECI as illegal and consequently direct the other authorities to strictly adhere to all the provisions of the Rules and Regulations and the constitution of the AIADMK while holding organisational elections The ECI could not be expected to interfere with the internal issues of the political parties and check whether their rules and regulations were adhered to scrupulously If at all the petitioner was aggrieved he could move the civil court for remedy the bench said According to the petitioner after the death of party supremo J Jayalalithaa on December 5 2016 the AIADMK general council held on December 26 that year appointed her close aide V K Sasikala as the interim general secretary However the ECI did not approve her appointment and the resolutions The then Chief Minister O Panneerselvam submitted his resignation in February 2017 but later announced that he had been forced to do so Meanwhile the Supreme Court convicted Sasikala in a disproportionate assets case and sentenced her to imprisonment She appointed her nephew T T V Dhinakaran as the deputy general secretary of the AIADMK However following factional disputes during the by-election to Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency which fell vacant due to the death of Jayalalithaa the ECI in March 2017 had frozen the AIADMKs Two Leaves symbol Thereafter a meeting of the general council was held on September 12 2017 where 12 resolutions were passed By one of the resolutions Panneerselvam was appointed as the Co-ordinator and Palaniswami as the joint co-ordinator of the party The petitioner contended that the ECI ought not to have given its approval to the amendments He also insisted on conducting intra-party elections as per the AIADMK constitution prevailing in 2016 PTI COR SA APR APR

Chennai Sep 18 PTI The Madras High Court has directed the Puducherry government to consider a plea for establishment of a separate board for school education more particularly for X and XII standards in the Union Territory In the light of increasing population and the number of school-going children it may be in the best interest of the students if a board or individual boards for primary and secondary education or even higher education were constituted However that is a decision exclusively within the domain of the executive the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu said The bench permitted the petitioner to send a representation afresh to the Education secretary in Puducherry The secretary it said will consider the representation in appropriate perspective particularly considering the many schools which have mushroomed in Puducherry itself and the need for providing a distinct curriculum or even process for students there delinked from what is followed in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu The bench was disposing of a PIL petition from R Sreedhar on Thursday If such representation is made by the petitioner within the next four weeks the Secretary should furnish a reply within 12 weeks the bench said and hoped that expeditious and appropriate steps would be taken by the Puducherry government to best serve the interest of the school-going students in its region PTI COR SA APR APR