The Hindu : Front Page : Apex court clears hurdles to Bench

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Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

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Apex court clears hurdles to Bench

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, JULY 23. The Supreme Court today rejected a special leave petition (SLP) seeking a stay of the July 6 Presidential notification for the establishment of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court as well as its inauguration, scheduled for tomorrow.

A Bench consisting of Justice S.N. Variava and Justice A.K. Mathur, dismissing the SLP filed by advocate V. Subramaniam, said "we are not inclined to interfere with the High Court order dated July 16" (dismissing the plea for interim relief).

High Court's `failure'

Anil Divan, senior counsel for the petitioner, contended that the High Court had failed to appreciate the basic requirement of the constitutional provisions for establishing a permanent Bench in Madurai.

The provisions of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, under which the President issued the notification, would not apply to the Madras High Court as Tamil Nadu was not a State within the meaning of `new State' as defined under the 1956 Act, he argued.

The judges told counsel, "the fact is that the Chennai Bar did not want to go there (Madurai) and they did not want to come here (Chennai). The High Court has rejected your prayer for interim relief stating that crores of rupees had been spent on the building. It had also observed that in the event of its allowing the writ petition, the Madurai Bench so inaugurated shall continue as a Circuit Bench under Clause 31 of Letters Patent".

Despite the arguments by Mr. Divan assailing the July 6 notification, the Bench declined to interfere with the High Court order, and thus paved the way for the inauguration of the Madurai Bench.

Black day protest

Several lawyers from Chennai, including S. Prabakaran, president of the Madras High Court Advocates Association, had assembled in the court to watch the proceedings.

Talking to reporters after the petition was dismissed, he said, "tomorrow will be observed as a black day. The general body of the association will meet on Monday to decide the future course of action, whether or not to continue the str ike protesting against the inauguration of the Bench".

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