PIL to treat 3-yr-old jumbo calf

A PIL has been filed in the Madras High Court for a directive to the forest department to provide proper treatment to a three-year-old elephant calf, which was allegedly abandoned by its mother and fo

CHENNAI: A PIL has been filed in the Madras High Court for a directive to the forest department to provide proper treatment to a three-year-old elephant calf, which was allegedly abandoned by its mother and found in an anaesthetic condition in the foot-hills of Western ghats, recently.

The first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar, before which the PIL from Prema Veeraraghavan, daughter of PS Narayanan, co-founder of Elsa Foundation, came up on Friday, directed the forest department to inform the court whether it has any objection to conduct medical examination by experts in the field.

The PIL, among other things, sought to restrain the forest and other connected departments from keeping wild elephants in lifelong captivity, as the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, explicitly banned the same.
Her interim prayer is for a directive to inspect the elephant calf by Rajeev (Kerala Veterinary College, Mannuthy) and Kushal Sarma (Assam Veterinary College).

According to petitioner, who relied on newspaper reports, the  calf was suffering from various diseases and no proper treatment was given by officials and doctors of the forest department. On the other hand, it was kept in captivity. It was chained and kept in a small kraal, petitioner alleged.

Orders reserved on appeal against death sentence

Chennai: A division bench of the Madras High Court has reserved orders on criminal appeals from two persons, who had allegedly killed a man and his minor daughter by setting them ablaze in 2015. The girl was also sexually abused by the duo. The bench reserved orders at a special sitting at the High Court on Saturday. According to prosecution, Thangavel (45) had borrowed money from one Selvam.

As he could not repay the debt, Selvam and his henchmen allegedly kidnapped Thangavel and his 11-year-old daughter and set him afire at a solitary place in 2015. They also gangraped the girl and set her ablaze at Coimbatore. A Mahila Court at Tirupur awarded death sentence to Selvam and Thangaraj, the prime accused and life sentence till death to three others, in May last. Challenging this, all the five accused moved the High Court, which reserved orders Saturday.

Notice to govt on plea against Mandram nominations

Chennai: The Madras High Court has ordered notice to the State government on a writ petition seeking to quash a GO dated June 14 last, which nominated members to the ‘Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Mandram’ when the matter was sub-judice. Justice M Duraiswamy issued the notice on a petition from the Mandram’s erstwhile member Vazhuvoor Ravi of RA Puram, on Friday. 

The notices are returnable in four weeks. According to petitioner, he had filed a writ petition for conducting elections for the 11 vacant posts of members to the Mandram. When the case came up on the last occasion, the government submitted an amended constitution of the mandram changing the democratic system of election to nomination of members. He had challenged the amended GO in the High Court again and the court had issued notice.

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