Putting the Tamil Nadu government in a fix, the Madras High Court on Friday tagged a public interest litigation petition filed against acquisition of agricultural land for the proposed Chennai-Salem eight-lane national highway with another random writ appeal filed by the State government objecting to acquisition of water bodies for another national highway in Pudukottai district.
A Division Bench of Justices K.K. Sasidharan and R. Subramanian wondered how could the State government, which had objections to acquisition of water bodies for a national highway in a different case could be highly interested in acquiring all kinds of lands, including wet lands, for the proposed eight lane highway to be laid at a total cost of Rs.10,000 crore.
They felt that it would only be appropriate to hear the present PIL petition filed by advocate A.P. Suryaprakasam along with the writ appeal that had been filed by the State Government. The judges directed the High Court Registry to post the present case along with the appeals and said that a detailed order in this regard shall be passed during the course of the day.
In his present PIL petition, the advocate had sought for a direction to the State Government to constitute a committee of experts to study the ecological damage that may be caused due to indiscriminate acquisition of lands for the proposed Chennai-Salem eight lane highway.
