MADURAI: After a long legal battle, the dispute over choosing a location for the establishment of Karur New Bus stand, which began as early as in 2006, finally came to an end on Friday with the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court giving a go-ahead to the state government to continue the construction works that were already commenced for the bus stand at Thirumanilayur village in Karur.
Nearly 31% of the construction works had been completed before the court had passed interim orders stopping the project following various litigations claiming that the said land is an agricultural land and altering field bothies would affect agriculturists. The litigants also questioned the government's power to convert the agricultural lands for commercial purposes. But a bench comprising Justices R Suresh Kumar and G Arul Murugan dismissed the petitions by holding that all the legal requirements have been fully complied with by the stakeholders, namely the state government, district administration, water resources department as well as the Karur municipality, under various provisions of law in order to establish an integrated central bus stand at Thirumanilaiyur village.
Commenting that some of the litigants had challenged the project for personal reasons and not for public good, the judges said, "Judicial pendulum naturally would take a side of public good and not in favour of individuals or group of individuals to sustain and fulfil their desire either to progress themselves or to act as carriers of such kind of litigations of those individuals or group of individuals who are sitting behind and drive these people to come to this Court."
The construction of the bus stand is a dire need for the people and such a public project cannot be unnecessarily halted without any plausible reason, the bench added, and disposed of the petitions.
The Karur district administration, in 2006, had chosen a land in Thoranakkalpatti village in Karur for the new bus stand. Since it was rejected, the authorities started looking for an alternative place and the 12-acre land in Thirumanilayur village, donated by two individuals, was finalised in 2013.
The petitions challenging the decision were dismissed by the high court through a detailed order in 2014. However, several petitions were filed reagitating the issue by citing the presence of field bothies and the conversion of the lands into commercial zones, among others. The said petitions were disposed of by the above order.