Chennai Apr 26 PTI The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to formulate as expeditiously as possible a comprehensive scheme for providing guarantee of employment to the ousted block level co-ordinators either by redeploying them in any suitable post on a preferential basis against regular vacancies that may arise in various departments or by sanctioning regular posts in the sanitation programmes that are being implemented by it for their eventual regularisation In the meanwhile as far as the present employment of these writ petitioners is concerned the same may be continued and wherever there is any possibility of extending their employment the same may be extended to these petitioners Justice V Parthiban since retired said recently The judge was disposing of a batch of writ petitions from N Karunanidhi and 40 others who prayed for a direction to the State and the central governments to regularise their services in the post of Block Level Co-ordinators and confirm their services after considering their more than 10 years length of services The State government which is now responsible for their engagement ought to consider their pitiable plight hanging precariously by a thread and initiate all necessary and earnest steps towards addressing their grievance The government cannot shut the doors of hope to the petitioners and still would expect them to work effectively in implementation of the projects serving public purpose It is a constitutional imperative and also a moral obligation on the part of the government to come up with some kind of a comprehensive scheme to address the claim of these employees for regularisation The government may graciously consider taking into account the long period of employment and requirement of their experienced service for serving the larger interest of the public in the State For all the above stated reasons the State government is directed to formulate a comprehensive scheme for providing guarantee of employment to these writ petitioners the judge said PTI CORR SA SA

Chennai Apr 18 PTI The Madras High Court on Monday expressed its displeasure over the social media posts of actor-turned-politician S V Shekher which according to it reflected vulgarity When the petitions against his social media posts denigrating women journalists came up for further hearing before Justice A D Jagadeesh Chandira today counsel for one of the petitioners produced screen shots of the retweets and posts on social media made by the BJP politician After expressing his displeasure over the issue the judge orally observed that the actor could not abdicate his responsibility by saying simply he had just retweeted the messages without even reading them The matter stands adjourned till April 22 When the matter came up for hearing last week Shekher had filed an affidavit offering his unconditional apology for posting the messages However the court directed him to file separate affidavits on the four cases that had been registered against him by the Central Crime Branch CCB of Greater Chennai Police PTI CORR SA SA

Chennai Mar 30 PTI The Madras High Court on Wednesday lamented the available procedural law in force which many a times turn against the successful litigants Justice N Anand Venkatesh made the observation while passing orders on a second appeal relating to a property dispute that arose well over four decades ago The present second appeal is a painful pointer of how a litigant starts facing misery after obtaining a decree from the Court The Code of Civil Procedure is designed to facilitate justice and further its ends Unfortunately in many cases the procedure acts like a penal enactment where the litigant is actually punished and made to run from pillar to post to get the fruits of the decree he said This Court is forced to start this judgment with this somber note since a mortgage decree that was obtained in the year 1979 in an original suit filed in 1978 is yet to see the light of the day and 43 years had gone by If a litigant is made to undergo this mental agony no wonder people will lose faith in civil litigations and will resort to short cut methods to achieve even those reliefs to which they are rightfully entitled to the court added As the facts of this case unfurl one will understand how difficult it is to get a decree executed with the available procedural law in force the judge said and imposed a cost of Rs 50000 on the persons who took all efforts to see that the successful litigant did not get the relief ordered by the court earlier PTI CORR SA SA

Chennai Mar 25 PTI The Madras High Court on Friday directed the Nilgiris district Collector to seal all the shops that are selling banned plastic items in the district saying mere imposing of fines would not serve the purpose A division bench of Justices V Bharathidasan and N Satish Kumar gave the direction when the batch of public interest writ petitions from social activists came up for further hearing today The petitions prayed for strict implementation on the ban plastic items which had been introduced from January 2019 When the matter came up today the Collector appearing through video conferencing informed the judges that over Rs 125 lakh had been collected towards fines from the traders who violated the directive Mere imposition of fine and penalties would not serve the purpose the bench retorted Unless action like sealing the shops are undertaken the plastic menace could not be eradicated it added The judges stated that they are planning to visit the Nilgiris to study the steps to be taken to remove the exotic species They are also proposing to visit the train route between Palakkad and Coimbatore to ascertain the steps taken to prevent elephant deaths due to train hits they added PTI CORR SA SA

Chennai Mar 23 PTI The Madras High Court has confirmed the order of the Tamil Nadu Home department removing a government advocate from service on charges of corruption A division bench of Justices K Kalyanasundaram and R Hemalatha upheld the dismissal order on March 22 while rejecting a writ petition from Dhanalakshmi Special Public Prosecutor SPP attached to the Fast Track Mahila Court in Tiruvallur She sought to quash an order dated October 16 2019 of the Home department removing her from service and prayed for courts permission to continue to function as the SPP The charge against Dhanalakshmi was that she had colluded with the accused in several criminal cases pending before the Mahila Court in Tiruvallur which paved the way for their acquittal Dismissing her petition the bench observed that every advocate is a court officer and part and parcel of the justice delivery system The public reposes great faith in the judiciary but the judges have to rely on their pillars the advocates The government advocate being the representative of the government has to act in an honest manner If heshe goes around with the intention to make money at the cost of justice only chaos will prevail PTI CORR SA SA

Chennai Jan 28 PTI The Madras High Court on Friday directed the police to submit a status report on a land grab case against Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M Appavu The direction to the Tirunelveli CCB came on a petition from the complainant who made land grabbing allegations against Appavu and prayed for a direction to the police to complete the investigation within a time frame and file a final report Based on his complaint petitioner S Dhamotharan pointed out FIR had been registered in 2019 but after that investigation was not proceeding Therefore the present petition PTI CORR SA BN BN

Chennai Nov 26 PTI The Madras High Court on Friday directed the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and the Market Management panel in Koyambedu wholesale market to submit their response by November 29 on a plea to restore the tomato unloading ground situated there Justice R Suresh Kumar gave the direction while passing interim orders on a writ petition from the Thanthai Periyar Tomato Traders Association by its president A K Swaminathan The petition sought to quash the October 14 2020 order of the Chief Administrator Officer of the CMDA Market Managing Committee which closed the site and consequently prayed for a direction to him to permit the association members to use the ground for loading and unloading tomatoes PTI SA APR APR

Chennai Nov 22 PTI The Madras High Court has set aside an order of the Tiruvannamalai administration granting permission to construct a building on a playground and directed the District Collector to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the official who gave the nod If this kind of illegal allotment of government land and playground was allowed to be made by the officials then it will be a threat for the maintenance of public properties Justice S M Surbamaniam said in a recent order The public officials are always expected to maintain the government lands buildings and properties intact and for the benefit of the people at large Contrarily they cannot permit any other individual to encroach upon the public lands for individual gains or allot such public lands in favour of the individuals in violation of the Statutes and Rules in force Thus the actions of the respondents -- Tiruvannamalai District Collector the District Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Officer and the Special Tahsildar Adi Dravidar Welfare Office in Vandhavasi is not in accordance with law the judge said He directed the Collector to conduct a detailed enquiry and initiate all appropriate action against the officials who had committed such illegalities in allotting the playground in favour of the individuals and permitted the individual to construct house in the playground The judge was allowing a writ petition from A Sugumaran who sought to quash the impugned order of October 2015 demolish the illegal construction and restore the playground to its original position The judge also went on to observe that in the event of allowing such illegalities to continue the same will not only create a bad precedent but the public officials will be emboldened for allotting such public lands in favour of the individuals by corrupt means In such circumstances any leniency or misplaced sympathy will result in infringement of public rights which is unconstitutional Such infringements can never be allowed by the constitutional Courts Public rights in respect of public lands are to be protected under all circumstances and the parties responsible and accountable must be prosecuted for any such illegality of permitting any other private person to encroach upon or construct buildings in public places the judge added PTI COR SA APR APR

Chennai Nov 20 PTI The Madras High Court has granted its nod for the shifting of the construction of the State Level Cooperative Training Institute from Yercaud to Kodaikanal Since the government had taken a policy decision to shift the project at Yercaud by cancelling its earlier GO dated December 24 2020 as stated in the subsequent one dated November 9 this year no adjudication is needed on this aspect Justice R Suresh Kumar said The judge was passing further interim orders on a writ petition from G Sendrayan president of the Yercaud Lamp Co-operative society on November 16 PTI COR SA APR APR

Chennai Nov 19 PTI The Madras High Court has directed the Greater Chennai Police Commissioner to initiate swift action on complaints or information against the public authority and police officials regarding demand and acceptance of freebies bribes or any other extraneous considerations Justice S M Subramaniam gave the direction recently while allowing a writ petition from a small traders organisation in suburban Chrompet Also the Bench directed the Commissioner to constitute special squads for effective and efficient control of traffic system on GST Road and in strategical locations of other important roads in Greater Chennai He should sensitise the traffic police personnel to the issues prevailing and ensure free flow of traffic Dereliction of duty lapses or negligence must be viewed seriously the judge added According to the petitioner the authorities concerned were causing nuisance to the public at large by allowing the commuters to park the vehicles irregularly in front of their commercial establishments Large-scale irregular parking on the GST Road caused greater inconvenience to the people who were all passing through and it affected the free flow of traffic in the locality the petitioner contended PTI COR SA NVG NVG