HC asks Nedumaran to reply to show-cause notice by panchayat

The Madras High Court today directed Tamil Nationalist leader P Nedumaran, who also runs a trust, to reply to a show-cause notice issued by a panchayat in Thanjavur district asking why the planning permission to put up a building should not be cancelled.
"We grant one week of time to the trust from today to give a reply to the notice issued by the panchayat...," said a Division Bench comprising Justice Satish K Agnihotri and Justice K K Sasidharan, which disposed of a petition by Nedumaran, chairman of the Ulagath Tamizhar Peramaippu Trust, challenging the show-cause notice.
The Trust had constructed a memorial in Thanjavur district in honour of Tamil martyrs in the war in Sri Lanka.

The petitioner submitted that the memorial was constructed absolutely in consonance with the plans and permission sanction. But the panchayat president had issued a show-cause notice.
The bench said, "The notice given to the petitioner is only a preliminary one and the executive Authority has called upon the petitioner to show cause as to why the permission should not be cancelled."
The bench mentioned that the Advocate General had also made it very clear that any action would be taken only after examining the reply by the Trust. It directed the panchayat president to inspect the building on receipt of reply from the Trust. The inspection should be carried out in the presence of the Trust representative.

The court said it was open to the panchayat to take further action depending upon the outcome of the inspection in accordance with law.