At a special sitting of the judiciary here on Wednesday, the Madras High Court dismissed two separate public interest litigation petitions seeking a direction to the authorities to restrain the ruling AIADMK from conducting its general body meeting on the campus of the Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute in Thiruvanmiyur in south Chennai slated for Thursday.
However, the court sought details of the applications submitted by the AIADMK to erect hoardings at several places in the city en route to the venue and the permission granted for the same by the authorities concerned. A special bench of Justices K. Kalyanasundaram and S. Vaidyanathan gave the direction after the Advocate General A. L. Somayaji objected to the petitioners’ oral plea praying to remove the hoardings, banners and festoons. He submitted that due permission has been obtained.
The judges then directed the Advocate General to submit a list of names of persons that appear on the publicity banners and the copy of permissions taken by them from the respective landlords if the banners were placed in residential premises by January 5. “It is made clear that the payment or post remittance of the amount by the party persons will not cure defect,” the judges said.
The PILs were filed by serial public interest litigator ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy and the Satta Panchayat Iyakkam (SPI), a non-political outfit. The petitioners contended that the venue of the party meet was supposed to be used only for educational purposes as per the sale deed dated July 7, 2014, executed by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board in favour of the Sri Ramachandra Institute.
Counsel for the SPI contended that as per the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct, “Use of educational institutions including their grounds whether government or private for political campaigns and rallies is not allowed.” Hence, he pleaded the court to grant an order de-recognising the AIADMK for violating this code. However, the Advocate General said the code would take effect only after the election notification is issued.
