CHENNAI: A PIL petition was filed in the Madras High Court seeking to forbear the Tamil Nadu Government from shifting the Anna Centenary Library (ACL) from its present location to the Directorate of Public Instructiuon complex.
Petitioner P Pugalenthi, a city advocate, claimed that the cabinet decision taken on November 1 to shift the library to DPI complex would be 'arbitrary, unfair, unreasonable and violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the constitution in the absence of a public notice inviting objections in accordance with law.
The PIL pointed out there was already the 'Connemara Public Library' located close to the DPI complex, which has been functioning since 1860 and one of the four National Depository Libararies in the country.
The nine-floor ACL, considered one of the best in the world, is built on eight acres of land with the building area of over 3.33 lakh sq ft, including a children's section spread over 15,000 sq ft.
Built at a cost of over Rs 200 crore, it has a capacity to accommodate about 12 lakh books and the value of books in the library at present runs into lakhs of rupees, the PIL said.
The petitioner contended that moving the library out of the building, constructed with public money, was also violative of the Constitution and the decision deserved to be declared as arbitrary and mala fide'.