Chennai: Madras High Court on Friday restrained the AIADMK Government in Tamil Nadu from altering or modifying in any manner the new assembly-secretariat complex for a multi-speciality hospital-cum-medical college.
The interim injunction was given by a bench comprising
justices D Murugesan and P S S Janarthana Raja on a PIL
challenging the August 19 last decision of the Jayalalithaa
Government to convert the complex, a pet project of arch-rival
DMK President M Karunanidhi during his rule, into a hospital.
The order was passed after the state Advocate General A
Navaneethakrishnan informed the court that the government was
yet to obtain the environmental clearance for the proposed
hospital.
However, the judges made it clear that the restraint order
would not come in the way of the government obtaining the
environmental clearance.
Petitioner R Veeramani, an advocate, had contended that the
decision to convert the complex was illegal and arbitrary as
it was taken for malafide reasons.
The court posted the petition to February 13 for further
hearing.
Within months after returning to power, Jayalalithaa had
dumped the Rs 1,000 crore new secretariat project, inaugurated
by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in one of the reversals of
the several DMK Government's projects.
PTI
First Published: Friday, January 20, 2012, 15:34