The Madras High Court today granted interim stay on proceedings of the Additional Chief Secretary, State Revenue and Mitigation Department, with regard to the summons issued for personal appearance of PMK president G.K. Mani, on September 10.
Justice V.Ramasubramanian, before whom the plea filed by Mani came up, granted interim stay on the summons order dated July 8 last year and notice issued on August 27 this year.
The court also ordered issue of notice to Divisional Engineer, Highways, Construction and Maintenance Division, Villupuram District returnable by two weeks.
The notice was issued to the PMK leader under the Tamil Nadu Property (prevention of damage and loss) Act, 1992 in connection with a quarrel that allegedly broke out during a function conducted by PMK and Vanniar Sangham on April 25 at Marakkanam last year in which damage to government property reportedly occurred. A sum of Rs 18,00,000 was claimed as damages.
Counsel for Mani said an FIR was also filed in connection with the issue in which the accused persons were mentioned as unnamed and investigation is still pending. At this stage, the summons was issued on an application by the Divisional Engineer, Highways Department on damages that occurred to a culvert.
The counsel submitted several cases likewise were also filed by the government with malafide and political motives and these were challenged through writ petitions before the court.
The petitioner prayed for quashing the proceedings of Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue Department claiming damages and for personal appearance besides seeking interim stay.
The Judge directed that all similar petitions along with the above plea be posted before the court.
