Justice S. Nagamuthu, the administrative judge of the Madras High Court Bench here, on Saturday declared the court campus a plastic-free zone and requested lawyers, litigants, court staff, police personnel and all others to take part in the movement to keep the campus, spread over 100 acres, clean and green.
He made the announcement while delivering his inaugural address at the launch of a ‘Clean Environment Drive,’ dubbed in Tamil as ‘Inaivom Maasu Kalaivom,’ to clean the court campus with the assistance of other judges, lawyers, law officers, court staff, advocate clerks, sanitary workers from municipal corporation and others.
“Cleaning the dirt accumulated on the campus is one thing and taking a vow not to dirty the campus at all is another thing. We must actually prefer to do the latter than the former,” Mr. Justice Nagamuthu said with a loud applause from the crowd. He also made the gathering take a pledge to desist from spoiling the cleanliness of the campus.
Later, the judge joined Justices S. Vimala, V. Bharathidasan and J. Nisha Banu and a huge number of lawyers, court staff and sanitary workers in cleaning the campus.
Corporation Commissioner Sandeep Nanduri had provided necessary assistance by deputing sanitary workers and trucks to transport the accumulated garbage.
Wearing gloves and covering their faces with surgical masks, the judges did not hesitate to hold the broomsticks and clean the campus along with others. Many women lawyers also took part in the drive and some of them suggested that they could even go to Mattuthavani bus stand in the city some day and help the sanitary workers in cleaning the bus stand.
Court officials said that there was an overwhelming response for the drive and hundreds of people turned up early in the morning to take part in the event voluntarily. Several tonnes of garbage was accumulated from the campus by afternoon and the Corporation staff did well to take away the garbage to the dumping yard.
“This is the first time that such a mega cleanliness drive was being conducted in the High Court Bench ever since its inauguration on July 24, 2004,” a court staff said. He also said that the court administration had taken immediate steps to repair a central minaret which was part of the majestic facade of the court building after The Hindu reported, last month, about the building having suffered a visible dent with the cement plastering peeling off the bottom of the minaret.
