Vijayakanth's petition on marriage hall dismissed

Chennai, Feb 16 (UNI) Madras High Court today dismissed petitions by DMDK founder leader and actor-politician Vijakanth, his wife and four others, challenging the Centre's notice seeking to demolish a marriage hall owned by him and to acquire land for constructing a grade separator in Koyambedu.

Mr Justice V Ramasubramanian before whom the case came for hearing said the petitioners might not be entitled to raise the issue of vagueness in the notification, as the sequence of events showed they had understood what portions of land was sought to be acquired. Without understanding they could not have submitted an alternative proposal with expert opinion. There was neither promissory nor estoppel in this case.

The judge said the rejection of the alternative proposal also did not appear to be arbitrary, unfair or violative of principles of natural justice, as it was examined by an independent expert body, which concluded it was not feasible.

Referring to the contention on the impact created by the DMDK in the Assembly election, rival political parties decided to throttle and crush the party even at the threshold and so there was malafide, the judge said the sequence of events showed the project was mooted in 2004 and the notification issued on August 12, 2005, one month before the DMDK was floated on September 14, 2005.

It was clear there was no and there could not be allegation of malafide, he said.

If the petitioners' alternative proposal had been considered favourable, other land owners would have challenged the entire proceedings on the same grounds. The only difference was that their case might have had stronger footing because of absence of any provision in the act for divesting or reconveyancing or for allowing the proceedings to lapse, the judge added.

UNI