The Madras High Court on Monday permitted a batch of 35 landowners, whose properties were to be acquired for the ₹10,000-crore, eight-lane Chennai-Salem expressway, to file a joint writ petition without having to pay court fee individually. A Division Bench of Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and V. Bhavani Subbaroyan granted the permission.
The judges accepted a request made by advocate K. Balu to permit K. Jayavel, K. Kandasamy, P. Velappan, P. Selvam, K. Chinnusamy and 30 others from Salem district to file a common writ petition challenging the land acquisition proceedings as they were aggrieved over forcible take over of their lands, which are their only source of livelihood.
Earlier, the Division Bench heard elaborate arguments advanced by advocate T. Mohan, representing another set of petitioners in the case, and adjourned further hearing on the case to Wednesday. Though the petitioners had claimed that the acquisition would be detrimental to the environment, the Centre filed a counter affidavit claiming the contrary.
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