Madras HC stays order to establish Metro Rail within temple premises
A division bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice K Rajasekar heard an appeal moved by Aalayam Kappom, an NGO, challenging the single judge order.;
Madras High Court (File)
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court stayed a single judge order, which directed to establish the Metro station for phase 2 project within the premises of Sri Rathina Vinayagar and Durgai Amman Temple at Thousand Lights, instead of within the premises of a private insurance company.
A division bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice K Rajasekar heard an appeal moved by Aalayam Kappom, an NGO, challenging the single judge order.
Senior counsel Ravi, on behalf of the NGO, submitted: “Pursuant to the first division bench order of this court, the CMRL issued show cause to acquire open space reservation (OSR) land of United India Insurance (UII) at Royapettah to establish metro station. However, the single judge has set aside the division bench order.”
Advocate General (AG) PS Raman for CMRL submitted that his client had no objection to proceed with the plan establishing the Metro station at the land of the insurance company.
After the submission the bench issued notice to the insurance company and also stayed the single judge order.
Initially, the CMRL had proposed a plan to establish a Metro station within the premises of Sri Rathina Vinayagar and Durgai Amman Temple at Thousand Lights as a part of its Phase II project. The NGO moved a PIL challenging this, and it was taken for hearing by the first bench of the HC.
On August 8 2024, CMRL submitted before the court that it had no intention to demolish the structure of Rathina Vinayagar and Durgai Amman Temple and that the proposed Metro station would be shifted to another location. Pursuant to the submission, the PIL was disposed of.
Then, CMRL proposed a new plan to shift the Metro station to the land belonging to the insurance company. On 27 September, it issued a notice to UII proposing to acquire an extent of 837 sq/m of land from its property at Thousand Lights.
UII moved a petition challenging the notice and contended that it had built a branch office at the impugned land by spending over Rs 250 crore for construction, which is an iconic building. And, that it was done only after obtaining no objection from CMRL.
On March 11 this year, Justice N Anand Venkatesh quashed the show cause notice and directed CMRL to establish the station on the originally intended place.