The Madras High Court on Wednesday refused to take up a suo motu public interest litigation petition on the basis of activist ‘Traffic’ K.R. Ramaswamy’s complaint about several flex boards having been erected in Chennai for a function held at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here on Tuesday to felicitate Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
A vacation Bench of Justices S. Vaidyanathan and Krishnan Ramasamy, however, agreed to hear the issue in detail if the activist was willing to file a PIL petition on his own. They also issued a court slip to his counsel K. Arvind, granting permission to get the case filed within a couple of hours and to list it for hearing immediately thereafter. The senior judge was disappointed that the activist had not filed a fresh PIL petition but had chosen to file only a sub-application to a PIL petition preferred by him on September 30. That case was filed against flex boards erected across the city during the valedictory of former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran’s centenary celebrations.
Justice Vaidyanathan refused to hear the sub-application since the main PIL petition was pending before another Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad.
In his application, the activist had alleged that the busy road between the stadium and the Central Railway Station was converted into a one-way lane for about 45 minutes to pave the way for the Chief Minister’s convoy on the day of the felicitation. Many motorists were put to hardship due to sudden changes in traffic movement, he claimed.
