The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to intervene on a plea before the Madras HC seeking to restrain the Tamil Nadu government from shifting the State Secretariat from the Omandurar Government Estate to Fort St George in Chennai.
Counsel for the petitioner M Purushothaman and Vikram Patralekh contended that the petition filed by DMK leader Veeramani in the HC to restrain the AIADMK government from shifting the Secretariat was an abuse of legal process. At this, a Vacation Bench comprising Justice H L Gokhale and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai said: “How can we issue a writ of prohibition to the HC? You can agitate your issue before the HC itself. You can raise your plea before the HC.”
The petition in the SC was filed by one J Ramesh. The counsel pointed out that the Madras HC had dismissed the two earlier petitions. The SC petition averred that after the dismissal of the two petitions, the HC has now entertained another PIL on the same issue. The SC petition further contended, “The Hon’ble HC is abused as a forum for the political bickering...”