The Madras High Court on Thursday decided to rehear a public interest litigation petition filed against installation of a statue for former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in Tiruvannamalai town. It directed the Registry to list the case once again on June 6 and asked Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to postpone the unveiling ceremony scheduled to be held on Friday in view of the birth anniversary of the departed leader.
Vacation Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and Mohammed Shaffiq had on Wednesday reserved orders on the PIL petition and decided to pronounce their verdict on Thursday. However, after going through the case documents and certain court rulings, the judges decided to reopen the case since there were certain doubts with respect to the guidelines to be followed even while installing a statue on a private ‘patta’ land.
When senior counsel S. Prabakaran, representing DMK as well as Jeeva Educational Trust which had gifted 92.5 square feet of land to the party for the installation of the statue, as well as Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran contended that all guidelines had been followed in letter and spirit, the judges asked them to canvass their points before the regular Division Bench when the court reopens after summer vacation on Monday.
