CHENNAI: A PIL petition has been filed in the Madras High Court to quash a Government Order, which proposed to expand the Chennai Metropolitan Planning Area (CMPA) to 8,878 sq km.
The First Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose, before which the PIL from an Anna University former Urban Engineering professor K P Subramanian came up for hearing on Friday, posted the matter for March 19, following a request from the government advocate to grant time to obtain instructions.
According to advocate K Selvaraj, by a GO dated January 22 last, the government had proposed to expand CMPA to 8,878 sq km, which was seven times larger than the present area of 1,189 sq km. When the CMDA was unable to perform its statutory duties and enforce the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act for the existing area of just 1,189 sq km, it would be highly impossible for it to perform the duties for an extended area of 8,878 sq km, as it lacked manpower and other infrastructural facilities and institutional network.
As of today, the court was flooded with several litigations alleging building violations and unauthorised constructions. The expansion will create additional workload and problems. The notification called for objections from inhabitants of the proposed contiguous areas alone. This was totally against the object of the Act and would go against the interest of the inhabitants of existing Chennai city.
The proposal would greatly affect the quality of life and the standard of living of inhabitants in the existing area. Moreover, the proposal was silent on the objective of such an expansion. It was also in total violation of the principles of natural justice, the counsel said.
PIL plea against spot fine system rejected
Chennai: The First Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday rejected a PIL petition praying for a directive to the government to dispense with the existing system of spot fining. “The petition, in our view, is a gross abuse of process of court,” the Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose said, while dismissing the PIL from activist ‘Traffic’ K R Ramaswamy, who prayed for a directive to traffic police not to harass the public under the guise of spot fine.
The High Court Bench said imposition of fine, including spot fine, for driving in violation of rules is permissible. There is no law that prohibits collection of spot fines. The court cannot entertain a PIL and stop collection of spot fines from errant drivers, in anticipation of stray incidents of police excesses or impropriety or even dishonesty, the Bench said.