Chennai: The Madras High Court has asked officials not to yield to the pressure of the industry lobby, who are using seemai karuvelam (prosopis juliflora) as firewood, and instructed the government to eradicate the invasive species for the welfare of the State.
Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari said while sitting on a larger bench along with Justices N Sathish Kumar and PD Audikesavalu to hear a case related to the removal of the trees, said, ‘Though the industry lobby is much powerful, we should not yield to its pressure. Donāt think that I am an outsider. I am from Tamilnadu and know about the happenings here. I request the officials appearing here to kindly serve the people of Tamilnadu.’
Also, Madras High Court ordered that no candidate should be given permission to affix wall posters without the permission of the Chennai Corporation. Posters were seen at several locations ahead of urban local body elections in Tamilnadu.
The court was hearing a case filed by an AIADMK candidate over posters of a DMK candidate being stuck on walls for the upcoming local body polls. The court has also directed the corporation to recover charges for the removal of posters from the candidates.
Meanwhile, in a bid to curb frivolous Public Interest Litigations, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has been holding discussions for fixing criteria for filing, listing or hearing PILs by division bench. A bench of Justices Paresh Upadhyay and Krishnan Ramasamy started the exercise last week after taking over the portfolio on 7 February.