Posts Tagged Madras High Court
Another Madras HC judge recuses from Jaya bday gift case
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, Court, Health, Information, Political, government, illegal, lawyer, modification on August 28th, 2010
Another judge of the Madras High Court on Friday recused himself from hearing a petition by AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa seeking to quash the 1996 ‘birthday gift case’ filed by CBI against her.
The recusal by Justice T Mathivanan comes four days after Justice C T Selvam withdrew himself from hearing the petition after Jayalalithaa filed a memo stating that the judge had appeared against her when he was additional public prosecutor for the state government.
The former Tamil Nadu chief minister wanted the petition to be listed before some other judge. She had sought to quash the case citing ‘inordinate and unexplained delay’.
On August 23, when the petition came up for hearing, Justice Selvam directed that it be placed before the Chief Justice for posting before another judge.
Accordingly, the petition was posted before Justice Mathivanan, but he also declined to hear it. The Judge did not state any reason for recusing himself from the case.
According to CBI, on the occasion of her birthday in 1992 Jayalalithaa had accepted 89 demand drafts worth Rs two crore from 57 people drawn on various banks favouring her.
The CBI claimed that two former AIADMK ministers K A Shengottaiyan and Alagu Thirunavukarasu had also presented her with DDs for Rs 22.53 lakh and Rs 22.50 lakh respectively.
Madras HC upholds TN notification
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, Communication, Court, Departments, Health, Information, government, lawyer, programme on August 27th, 2010
The Madras High Court today upheld a Tamil Nadu notification of July one inviting applications for direct recruitment to the post of district judges at the entry level, holding that it did not suffer from any error.
The First Bench of Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam said it had been categorically stated that the obligation of filling vacancies as per the three per cent reservation for disabled persons would be carried out by the appointing authority at the time of appointment.
The court was dismissing a batch of petitions challenging the notification for want of transparency, among other things.
The Bench held that the stand taken by the state government was fully justified in as much as the system of 200 point roster dividing classification granting an equal ratio of 1:1:1 to the disabled category had been followed.
The court rejected a contention by another petitioner that the maximum marks allotted to the written exam and viva voce ’shall not be 75 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.’
It cited a recent Supreme Court judgment which held there was no constitutional infirmity in prescribing a higher percentage of marks for viva voce test for recruitment to services like judicial services and administrative services.
On another contention that no syllabi had been prescribed for the examination, the Judges said “the post of district judge is a coveted one having multiple responsibilities both on the judicial and administrative sides.” Therefore, candidates must have a good knowledge of civil,criminal and other laws and also basic knowledge in general law, they said.
The Bench also dismissed another petition seeking to declare the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Services (Cadre and Recruitment) Rules 2007 as ‘unconstitutional’ and consequently quash the notification.
It referred to another Apex Court decision where it was held that members of subordinate judiciary were not eligible to appear in exams for the post of district judges.
However, in view of the urgency of the matter, the Judges directed the government to notify the date and venue of the written examination within six weeks.
Govt agrees to extend pension to Tamil scholar
Posted by ganesh in Court, Health, Information, Other, Public, government, programme, tamilnadu on August 26th, 2010
The Tamil Nadu government has agreed to extend monthly pension to a Tamil scholar, but only after the scholar filed a contempt of court petition in the Madras high court against the director of Tamil development department.
K Kandasamy had participated in the agitation led by renowned Tamil scholar MP Sivagnanam to include towns like Tiruttani and Tirupati in the state of Tamil Nadu. He was arrested along with several others, and was in prison for 45 days.
In January 2007, the Tamil Nadu government issued an order, stating that people who had participated in the language agitation as well as for merger of Tamil areas in the northern border of the state with Tamil Nadu would be eligible for pension.
Kandasamy applied for the pension. Since no jail records were available to confirm his incarceration, he had furnished certificates from a co-prisoner. As there was no reply from the authorities, he filed a writ petition in the high court.
On April 28, 2008, the court directed the authorities to consider Kandasamy’s application on merits and pass appropriate orders. Still the official did not take any action, prompting the scholar to filed a contempt of court petition.
When the matter came up before Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar, the government advocate submitted that the department had issued an order on August 18, awarding the monthly pension of Rs 4,000 along with Rs 15 per month towards medical allowance. The pension will be paid with effect from the date of the court order, that is April 28, 2008, it was submitted.
Recording the submissions, Justice Paul Vasanthakumar said that no further adjudication was required in view of the decision of the department. He also closed the contempt proceedings.
Govt asked to keep BDS seat vacant for Kargil hero’s daughter
Posted by ganesh in Army, Chennai, Court, Departments, Education, Health, Information, hospital on August 24th, 2010
The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to keep one seat vacant in the Bachelor of Dental Surgeons (BDS) course in a self-financing college for the daughter of a Kargil hero.
Justice K B K Vasuki passed the order on a petition by M Lokapriya, daughter of armyman, K Manickam, killed in the Kargil war in 1999.
Lokapriya, hailing from Madurai and represented by her mother R Malliga, in a writ petition had sought a direction to the state Directorate of Medical Education to have her admitted in the first year BDS course in a government college for the academic year 2010-11, under a special reservation.
Claiming admission on a priority basis, she submitted that the government had passed a special order in 1999 recognising the armyman’s service. She did not fall under the category reserved for children of ex-servicemen, she said.
However, the government advocate contested the girl’s claim and submitted that the special reservation fell under the quota meant for ex-servicemen’s children.
Counselling for existing vacancies in government colleges was over on July 31 and all the seats had been filled, the advocate said and contended that as the petitioner did not secure the required cut-off mark, she was not considered under reservation for children of ex-servicemen.
The Judge said in her view the dispute involved was whether the special reservation granted in favour of the petitioner fell within or outside the reservation for children of ex-servicemen and had to be decided in the main petition.
Considering the nature of the petitioner’s claim and circumstances in which the G.O. came to be passed, the court was inclined to give the direction to the Selection Committee, the Judge said.
Meanwhile, counselling for seats for vacancies in self-financing colleges has been fixed for August 23 and 24.
Woman’s abduction: Madras HC ordered suo motu Contempt notice against SP,Inspector
Posted by ganesh in Court, Departments, Health, Information, Madurai, illegal, police on August 19th, 2010
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court today ordered suo motu contempt notice against a Superintendent of Police and Inspector for not taking action against three persons who allegedly abducted a 42-year-old woman and robbed jewels weighing 35 sovereigns and cash to the tune of Rs.1.4 lakh.
A Division Bench of Justice K.Suguna and Justice S.Palanivelu directed the registry to issue contempt notice to the Sivaganga District SP and Inspector of Sivaganga town Police station.
The court was admitting a Habeas corpus petition filed by the woman’s husband who alleged that the police did not take steps to trace his wife who was abducted by neighbours.
The notice was ordered as there was no response from the Police to its order to trace the woman.
Simmakkal Vinayagar temple should not be disturbed: Madras High court
Posted by ganesh in Court, Information, Madurai, Temples, government, lawyer on August 19th, 2010
The Madras High Court Bench here has restrained the Highways Department from demolishing the Vazhividum Siddhi Vinayagar Temple at Simmakkal here until a final decision was taken on the issue after considering the explanation to be given by the trustee to the department’s contention that the temple had been constructed on an encroached property.
A Division Bench comprising Justice D. Murugesan and Justice M. Duraiswamy passed the order while disposing of a public interest litigation petition filed by the temple trustee K.S. Kandasamy challenging a notice issued by the Assistant Divisional Engineer of Highways Department on July 28. Through the notice, the petitioner was asked to remove the encroachment.
In his affidavit filed in support of the writ petition, the trustee claimed that the department ought not to have asked him to remove the alleged encroachment straightaway without issuing a show cause notice as required under law.
He wanted the court to quash the notice issued on July 28 besides issuing a direction to the officials not to demolish the temple.
Having regard to the fact that the petitioner was not given any opportunity whatsoever to explain his stand, the Division Bench ordered that the July 28 notice itself could be treated as a show cause notice.
It asked the petitioner to submit his explanation to the notice within a week. On receipt of such an explanation, the Assistant Divisional Engineer was directed to consider it accordance with law.
In the meantime, the temple should not be disturbed; the judges said and added that the officials could proceed with the matter if the petitioner failed to submit his explanation within seven days. The officials had planned to relocate the temple as part of the measure to prune the Simakkal traffic island, which also comprised of a park and a police outpost, for smooth flow of traffic.
Madras High Court has partly set aside a govt order
Posted by ganesh in Court, Departments, Information, Puducherry, government, tamilnadu on August 7th, 2010
The Madras High Court has partly set aside a government order of the Puducherry government reserving 75 per cent of seats for admission in professional courses for 2010-11 exclusively for students of Puducherry.
Passing orders on a batch of writ petitions,the First Bench, comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam, observed that there was no justification whatsoever for reserving 75 per cent of the total seats.
‘Federation of Puducherry Parents-Students affected by Region-wise Reservation’ and 16 others, in their PILs, had sought to declare as unconstitutional the region-wise reservation on various grounds.
The government order of May 21,2010, stated that 18 per cent would be reserved for students in Karaikal, four per cent for Mahe and three per cent for Yanam. The remaining 75 per cent would go to the students in Puducherry alone.
Senior advocate K M Vijayan contended that this pattern of reservation restricted the scope of admission to professional courses to Puducherry residents alone and the students in the other three regions could never compete with them.
Advocate R Suresh Kumar, appearing for the intervening petitioners, citing a Supreme Court ruling, submitted that the regional reservation in respect of Karaikkal, Mahe and Yanam could not be faulted with.
Partly allowing the petitions, the bench observed that it was convinced with the reason assigned for such regional reservation for Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam as it had a rationale behind it and satisfied with the objective sought to be achieved by the classification, such as to uplift the areas from their backwardness.
“Accordingly, we have no hesitation to hold that there was no arbitrariness in the region-wise reservation for Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam,” the bench said.
As regards the 75 per cent for Puducherry, the bench said that no reason had been assigned to the objective behind it.
The submission that it in no way affected the interest of the students of the other three regions could hardly be a justification.
The bench, however, said no error could be attributed in insisting on the domicile certificate. If such certificate was not insisted upon for claiming region-wise reservation, then the very objective behind the classification would be lost and it would stand defeated, the bench added.
Chief Justice of Madras High Court sworn in
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, Court, Departments, Information, government, modification, programme on April 29th, 2010
Members of the legal fraternity today bid farewell to Chief Justice of Madras High Court Hemant Laxman Gokhale, who has been elevated as Supreme Court Judge.
Justice Gokhale was sworn-in as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court on March 9, 2009.
Prior to this appointment, Justice Gokhale had served as Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.
He had been transferred to the Madras High Court in place of Chief Justice A K Ganguly who was elevated as a Supreme Court judge in December 2008.
Speaking on the occasion, he thanked the bar and the bench for the cooperation.
He requested the lawyers to desist from boycotting the court.
Madras High Court postponed to April 19 the hearing on a plea
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, Communication, Health, Information, Other, government, illegal, release, tamilnadu on April 15th, 2010
The Madras High Court today postponed to April 19 the hearing on a plea by Rajiv Gandhi murder convict Nalini Sriharan against the Tamil Nadu government’s order on her premature release.
The State government had rejected the plea for premature release of Nalini, serving a life term in the assassination case last month. This was after the Prison Advisory Board, constituted by the government to consider Nalini’s representation, has rejected her plea on eight grounds.
Meanwhile, Nalini chose to file a plea against the State government’s decision, which came up for hearing before Justice Vasantha Kumar today, who postponed the hearing to Monday.
Rajiv’s assassin Nalini moves court for early release
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, Communication, Court, Health, Information, Other, Political, illegal on April 13th, 2010
Nalini Sriharan, serving life sentence for assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, on Monday moved the Madras High Court against a Tamil Nadu government decision to reject her appeal for
early release, and to direct the State Home Secretary to reconsider her plea and pass orders within a reasonable time.
In her petition, Nalini (44), said she had been in the Special Prison for Women, Vellore, for the past 19 years. She said the State government’s failure to read the criteria of the general amnesty scheme into the criteria prescribed by the Tamil Nadu Prison Rules in the light of a Supreme Court judgment and to release her prematurely would be violative of the Constitution.
The Madras High Court on April 6 dismissed her appeal for premature release, basing the ruling on the State government’s decision to accept the report of prison advisory board to turn down her request. The board, headed by the Vellore district Collector, listed eight counts not to free Nalini, including her reported refusal to apologise for Rajiv Gandhi’s murder in 1991.
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