CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has restrained the State government from making structural alterations in the new Assembly-cum-Secretariat building in Omandurar Government Estate till the disposal of a writ petition questioning the conversion of the building as a Multi Speciality Hospital and Medical College.Holding that the government had not obtained a fresh environmental clearance certificate from the Environment Impact Assessment Authority (EIAA) and the certificate already obtained (by the previous government) for the Assembly-cum-Secretariat building would not be applicable to the proposed hospital, a division bench comprising Justices D Murugesan and PPS Janarthana Raja granted the injunction, on Friday.The bench was passing interim orders on a public interest writ petition from R Veeramani of MKB Nagar. The bench, however, said that this order would not stand in the way of the government to obtain the certificate and also to take other steps as per its policy decision taken on Aug 19, 2011.The bench pointed out that for a project exceeding 15,000 sq.m, such a certificate from the EIAA, constituted under a notification issued by the Centre, was necessary. Though such a clearance was obtained before the construction of the new Assembly building, the fact remained that before any modification was effected to, no clearance had been admittedly obtained. The government had stated that it was taking necessary steps to obtain the certificate before the building was put into operation. The question as to whether such a clearance was necessary prior to any modification/alteration or not had to be gone into at the time of final hearing of the writ petition, the bench said.“For the present, we are of the prima facie opinion that the environmental clearance certificate issued for the purpose of the building in question would not include prior clearance from the authority for any modification of the existing building.’’“If that be so, the structure being the one, which has been constructed with a huge investment of Rs 551.80 crore, cannot be altered and any amount spent on such modification would cause huge loss to the government exchequer in the event the petitioner succeeding in the writ petition on the basis of the grounds raised by him. In that view of the matter, we are of the considered view that the government should be restrained from causing any alteration or modification or in any manner changing the structure of the building till the disposal of the main writ petition,’’ the bench said and accordingly granted the injunction.If the injunction was granted, no prejudice would be caused to the government as the amount invested in the building would not go waste in the event the writ petition was allowed, the judges said. Directing the government to file its counter-affidavit by February 10, the bench posted the matter for further hearing on February 13.
Comments
0 comment