"How can we issue a writ of prohibition to the high court? You can agitate your issue before the high court. You can raise your plea before the high court," a vacation bench of justices H L Gokhale and Ranjana Prakash Desai observed, while refusing to entertain the plea, filed by one J Ramesh.
Counsel M Purushothaman and Vikram Patralekh contended that the petition filed by DMK leader Veeramani in the high court to restrain the AIADMK government from shifting the secretariat building was an abuse of the legal process and barred by the principles of "res judicata" as two similar petitions on the same issue were dismissed.
The high court had earlier dismissed the two petitions on the ground that the matter related to the policy decision of the government which the courts normally should not interfere with, the petition to the apex court stated.
Under the principles of "res judicata", aimed at giving finality to an issue, the courts are barred from hearing the same matter once a judgement has been given on it.
The petition said though the high court had dismissed two earlier petitions on the controversy, it had now entertained another PIL filed by Veeramani on the same issue with slight modifications of the pleadings.
The Jayalalithaa government had recently decided to shift the secretariat to the Fort St George and convert the new building constructed by the previous DMK Government into a multi-speciality hospital-cum-medical college.
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