Madurai
The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered notice to the State government in a public interest litigation petition that sought a direction to remove all unauthorised statues that were installed in public places and road margins in the State.
A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and B. Pugalendhi directed the State to file a response in a public interest litigation petition filed by V. Vaira Sekar from Thanjavur who said that such statues caused great inconvenience and hardship to the public.
The petitioner said that the political parties and leaders were installing statues of political and popular figures with or without permission in almost all the villages, towns and cities in the State. This was not out of respect for the person, but only gimmicks, he said.
He pointed out that especially during the birth and death anniversary celebrations of popular figures, the statues are converted into places of worship resulting in the restriction to free movement of traffic. Even emergency vehicles go through the ordeal.
The petitioner said that he had also sent a representation to the Centre and the State in this regard. He said that he was filing the petition seeking a direction to the State to remove such unauthorised statues from public places and road margins.
