The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Lawyers seek apex court judges' help

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 18, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Lawyers seek apex court judges' help

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 17. A delegation of lawyers from Madurai today met two Supreme Court judges and pleaded for retention of the 14 districts under the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court as per the July 6 Presidential notification.

Under the notification, the Bench is vested with the jurisdiction of cases arising in Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Madurai, Dindigul, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Sivaganga, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Tiruchi, Perambalur and Karur districts.

However, in view of the controversy among rival sections of the Bar in Tamil Nadu over the number of districts allocated to the Bench, the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, B. Subhashan Reddy, under directions from the Chief Justice of India, R.C. Lahoti, set up a panel of judges to consider the matter afresh.

The panel, after hearing representatives of the Bar associations, is understood to have recommended that Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Tiruchi, Perambalur and Karur be retained under the jurisdiction of the principal seat.

The delegation, which included M.S. Balasubramanian, N.S. Ponniah, K.P. Thiyagarajan and C. Anbuvadivelsekar, told Justice K. G. Balakrishnan and Justice A. R. Lakshmanan that the panel had not formally submitted its report but media reports indicated that the five districts were taken away from the jurisdiction of the Madurai Bench.

The team sought the intervention of the two judges to resolve this issue.

On Monday, the delegation met members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu.

Plea to MPs

A delegation of lawyers practising in the Madurai Bench met MPs from Tamil Nadu in New Delhi and made a representation that they seek a clarification from the Centre on the territorial jurisdiction of the Bench.

In a fax message sent today, the delegation said that K. Malaisamy, MP, took up the issue in the Rajya Sabha and the Minister for Law and Justice replied that the Bench had jurisdiction over 14 districts including Thanjavur, Perambalur and Karur.

The delegation, under the banner of the Madurai High Court Advocates Association, would also meet the Supreme Court judges tomorrow.

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