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 Mar 28 PTI City-based businessman Ahmed A R Buhari who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate ED in connection with a money laundering case was refused bail by the Madras High Court on Monday The charge against Buhari promoter of Coastal Energy Private Limited was that he had supplied low quality coal to the public sector undertakings of the State and the Centre by producing fraudulent certificates of sampling and analysis by suppressing the facts on its original quality Justice G Jayachandran dismissed the bail plea today Buhari was arrested in the first week of March under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA 2002 by the ED after the CBI registered an FIR against him Investigations had revealed that Ahmed Buhari had generated over Rs 564 crore through over valuation of coal and diverted Rs more than Rs 557 crore through his companies before routing them back to the country PTI CORR SA SA

Chennai Mar 24 PTI Dr Subbiah Shanmugam the former national president of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad ABVP who was arrested on March 19 in connection with a case registered against him by the police in July 2020 was granted regular bail by the Madras High Court on Thursday Justice G Jayachandran who granted interim bail to Dr Subbiah a couple of days ago made the same as a regular one with the same conditions today Dr Subbiah the head of Oncology department in Government Stanley Hospital was arrested by Adambakkam police on March 19 following a complaint from a woman neighbour on July 25 2020 The charge against him was that he had thrown a used mask inside the gate of the womans residence and urinated outside her house On Monday the court had granted him interim and said he should be released on executing a personal bond for Rs 25000 to the satisfaction of the Superintendent of Prison Chengalpattu Meanwhile Justice D Krishnakumar reserved orders on Dr Subbiahs another petition challenging his suspension from service PTI CORR SA SA

Chennai Mar 24 PTI After prolonged hearings running to months on the writ plea of Nalini Sriharan who was incarcerated for well over 30 years in connection with Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to order her premature release without the consent of the State Governor the first bench of the Madras High Court on Thrusday directed the Registry to number the writ petition Doubting the maintainability of the writ petition as it prayed the court to order her release even without the approval of the Tamil Nadu Governor the constitutional authority the High Court Registry did not number it so far The previous AIADMK cabinet in September 2018 had passed a resolution and forwarded its recommendation to the Governor to order the premature release of all the seven life convicts under Art 161 of the Constitution As there was nothing forthcoming from the Governors end Nalini and others had filed several petitions in the High Court for a direction to the Governor to consider their plea But no such order was passed and all the petitions had failed Finally Nalini filed the present writ petition praying the court to order her release even without the consent of the Governor Meanwhile the Supreme Court had granted bail to A G Perarivalan another convict in the case Hence Nalini also prayed the High Court to apply the same yardstick adopted by the Supreme Court and grant bail to her But the first bench did not yield to her plea and posted the main petition seeking premature release for further hearing today Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber of the LTTE at a poll rally 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 Feb 28 PTI Water cans will be provided in the compartments of the trains running between Mettupalayam and Udhagamandalam ooty the Nilgiri Mountain Railway the Southern Railway informed the Madras High Court on Monday When the batch of PIL petitions seeking strict implementation of the ban on plastic products came up for further hearing today Southern Railway counsel told the division bench of Justices V Bharathidasan and N Sathish Kumar that the decision was taken to dissuade passengers from carrying plastic bottles He also told the judges that plastic debris weighing over 2300 kg were removed from the tracks The judges adjourned the matter till March 18 after directing the Railways to file a report on the same PTI CORR SA SA

Chennai Nov 24 PTI The Madras High Court on Wednesday set aside an order of the previous AIADMK regime to convert late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaas residence Veda Nilayam here as a memorial The property is located at the posh Poes Garden locality in the city Justice N Seshasayee quashed the order while allowing a batch of writ petitions from J Deepa Jayakumar niece of Jayalalithaa and J Deepak her brother challenging the order of the state government today After cancelling the conversion order dated July 22 2020 of the Land Acquisition officer in Guindy under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 the judge directed the authorities concerned to hand over the keys of the property back to the petitioners The court also permitted the Income Tax department to recover dues running to several crores of rupees from the petitioners The residential building in the upscale locality comprises office room library waiting room for guests and conference hall Reportedly it was bought by Jayalalithaas mother in the late 1960s and it was home to the late chief minister for over three decades where several leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called on her On August 17 2017 then Chief Minister K Palaniswami had announced Veda Nilayam would be converted into a memorial and opened to public in remembrance of her achievements and service to the people The Tamil Nadu Assembly had in September 2020 adopted a Bill to replace an ordinance issued for possession of the house and to facilitate vesting of movable properties therein with the government In January this year Veda Nilayam converted into a memorial was declared open by Palaniswami PTI CORR SA SA