The Madurai Corporation on Tuesday submitted in the Madras High Court bench that the Corporation monitored the height of buildings around the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple.
D. Chinnammal, Deputy Commissioner (in-charge) of Madurai Corporation, made the submission in a reply to a public interest litigation petition filed by S. Muthukumar, an advocate, in 2011 seeking implementation of a government order restricting the height of the buildings around the temple.
The petitioner had claimed that several buildings were constructed in violation of an order issued by the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department on January 30, 1997. As per the government order, the height limitation for buildings around the temple was nine metres, he said in his petition.
But several buildings were constructed violating the government order, making ‘Gopura Dharshan’ from a distance impossible, he had alleged. In her counter-affidavit, Mrs.Chinnammal submitted that the Corporation monitored the height of the buildings around the temple under the Madurai City Municipal Corporation Height and Architectural Regulation Bye-Laws, 1993, issued prior to the government order cited by the petitioner.
The terms of both the orders were similar, she added. The Corporation official further added that the urban local body regularly inspected the buildings which were under construction around the temple.
A Division Bench comprising Justices R. Sudhakar and S. Vaidyanathan posted it to December 18.
