The Nadigarthilagam Sivaji Samooganala Peravai has filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking a review of Thursday’s court order directing the government to remove the statue of Sivaji Ganesan from the junction of Kamarajar Salai and Radhakrishnan Salai.
Passing orders on a public interest litigation petition, the court had observed that the statue in the middle of the road would affect traffic flow and the view of vehicles passing through Radhakrishnan Salai. The Bench had also observed that public roads were not meant for erection of statues.
On Friday, counsel for the Peravai, S. Prabakaran, made a mention before a Division Bench consisting of Justices Satish K. Agnihotri and K.K. Sasidharan seeking a stay on the operation of Thursday’s order for two weeks to enable the parties to approach the Supreme Court. The Bench said since it had not directed the government to take a decision on removal of the statue within a prescribed period, it was rejecting the oral request.
Review petitionFollowing this, Peravai president, K. Chandrasekaran filed a review petition. It was submitted that the court order appeared to be an error apparent on the face of record as it had failed to look into the various documents in a G.O. of June 26, 2006 wherein the government had decided to erect a statue of Sivaji Ganesan at the junction after obtaining the recommendations from the District Collector, Commissioner of Land Administration and no-objection certificate for installing the statue from the Highways Department. The court had not taken note of a court order in July 2006 recording the undertaking of the then Advocate-General, on instructions from all authorities, including the police Commissioner, that the statue would not in any way be a hindrance to free flow of traffic.
The petitioner said the court had earlier dismissed a writ petition filed against the government for its proposal to construct an arch to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of the Assembly.
It was not correct to say that Sivaji Ganesan’s statue obstructed view of vehicles, the review petition said.
