Chennai: Coming to the rescue of a 66-year-old man, who has been fighting for over five years to take possession of his property in prime area of Saligrammam, Madras High Court has rejected a suit filed by a person, who attempted to grab the property, claiming ownership based on forged and fraudulent documents.

The court also directed him to pay a cost of Rs 1 lakh to the senior citizen on or before March 28.

Allowing an application from V.V.V. Nachiappan, Justice C.V. Karthikeyan said the plaintiff’s (P.M. Elavarasan) attempt to once again grab by judicial method has to be curbed.
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Elavarasan filed a suit seeking declaration that he was the absolute owner of the property, measuring 3,830 sq.ft, and also direction against Nachiappan and his legal heirs to hand over vacant possession of the property. He claimed that he purchased the property from his vendor S.N. Padmanabhan and others for `1.25 crore and the sale deed was executed on April 17, 2013.
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When it was presented for registration, the Sub-Registrar, Virugambakkam declined to register the same. He preferred appeals and finally it was pending before the inspector general of registration.

By filing an application, Nachiappan’s counsel S. Thankasivam contended that the Padmanabhan had created forged and fake documents, claiming right over the property. 

He had created a release deed registered in the office of sub-registrar, said to have been executed by fictitious persons.

Nachiappan lodged a complaint with the commissioner of police and the registration department. Later, the district registrar cancelled the release deed and other consequential documents.

Suppressing these facts, Padmanabhan and Elavarasan colluded and created a fake sale deed dated April 17, 2013 in the name of Elavarasan. Meanwhile, he appr-oached this court and obtained an order to evict Elavarasan from the property. Thereafter, Elavarasan filed the current suit, Thangasivam added.

The judge said Elavarasan cannot gain any title over the property in the absence of his vendor having any valid title. As a matter of fact, any suit, which was based on fraud and forged documents, has to be summarily rejected by the court.
 
The plaintiff, having come to the court based on fraudulent documents, cannot have any claim over the properties as the entire documents surrounding the property have been found to be false and forged. 
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The plaintiff was a land grabber and does not deserve any sympathy whatsoever, the judge added.

Chennai: The Madras high court has reserved orders on a memo filed by the DMK party alleging that the Election Commission of India has not deleted 5,117 bogus voters from the voters list in R.K.Nagar assembly constituency.
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Originally, on a petition filed by DMK Organisation secretary R.S. Bharathi to purify the voters list in R.K.Nagar, the First Bench headed by Chief Justice Indira Banerjee directed the ECI to conduct the bypoll to RK Nagar assembly constituency by December 31, after recording the submissions of ECI that the names of 45,819 voters had been deleted.

However, alleging that 5,117 bogus voters were yet to be deleted from the voters list, Senior Counsel P. Wilson, appearing for Bharathi had on December 6 made a mention before the First Bench to re-open the case and filed a memo to that effect.

When the case came up for hearing on Monday before a division bench comprising Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and K.Ravichandrabaabu, senior counsel Wilson submitted that the ECI was giving premium to illegality. When the ECI itself has acknowledged that 45,819 bogus voters were on the rolls and undertook to delete them before the court, they have actually not deleted the multiple and bogus voters.

After the rolls were uploaded in the website on November 23, it was found that about 5,117 bogus and multiple entries remain on the rolls and that a representation was given to the CEO. Thereafter, the ECI acknowledged 2,220 and 1947 multiple entries through a separate communication and undertook to include them in ASD list.

After ascertaining again with list sent by ECI it was found by DMK that about 1,788 bogus voters still remain untouched. Therefore, all bogus voters should be prevented from voting and a seal across their names should be put in the electoral roll and circulated to political parties so as to prevent these bogus voters from voting.

Niranjan Rajagopal, counsel for ECI submitted that 1,947 multiple entries exist in the uploaded list by ECI and the same will be placed in the ASD list. There were about 2,220 more multiple entries which will be kept in ASD list.

The high court has no power to interfere in the electoral process due to Article 329 (b) of the Constitution and that if any bogus voters cast their vote, the only remedy was to file an election petition and the high court has no power to interfere under Article 226 of the Constitution when once the election process was started.

The ECI has taken all appropriate steps to conduct the bypoll in a fair and transparent manner, he added. After hearing both sides, the bench reserved its order.
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Chennai: Situated only two kilometers from rapidly developing Ambattur, the 1,500 residents of Thirumullaivoyal are still struggling to get a proper road connection. For the past 25 years, the arterial stretch connecting the area to the city has been in a state of apathy, forcing commuters to travel an extra two kilometers at least to take a roundabout way to reach the city.
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“One of the major reasons delaying the reconstruction of road is the presence of illegal hutments. In 2005, a case was filed in the Madras High Court, after which the concerned departments cleared 90 per cent of the hutments in 2016. However, there are encroachments still present in the area”, rued T.D. Ramalingam, President, Sabari Ayyapan Nagar residents association.

He added that the Thirumullaivoyal road, which was originally about 40 feet wide, has shrunk by half after hutment dwellers illegally occupied the space.
A few residents themselves have been delaying the road relaying process because the road would only be 15 feet wide if it is repaired now, whereas the removal of the remaining encroachments would make it 40 feet wide.

According to some people, necessary arrangements were made to relocate the hutment dwellers in Morai village in Ambattur taluk, but they refused to move.

School students are among the worst hit. There are at least five schools located in the stretch. M. Janakiraman, a school student said, “It takes a minimum of half an hour to travel from Thirumullaivoyal to Sabari Ayyappan Nagar. If the road is reconstructed, it would not take more than 15 minutes”.

Another major issue plaguing the area is the presence of a storm water drain in the middle of road in Saraswathy Nagar in Thirumullaivoyal. Residents say that drainage water gets mixed with rainwater and seeps into borewells. When contacted, an official said the delay in reconstruction is due to lack of funds.
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“We have sought extension of six months since more than 50 people are to be questioned and CCTV footage in Apollo Hospitals and Poes Garden will have to be examined. Also, Justice Arumughaswamy plans to visit Poes Garden,” sources in the Commission told Deccan Chronicle. Sources in the government confirmed that they have received the letter from the commission and it is under consideration. 

“Most likely, extension will be granted since the government is very clear on bringing out the truth in Jayalalithaa's death,” a senior official said.

 DMK's Saravanan, Madhavan, husband of J Jayalalithaa's niece Deepa Jayakumar, P Balaji, who obtained the fingerprint of the late chief minister during her stay at Apollo Hospitals, have testified before the commission after having been summoned.

The commission has been mandated to inquire into the “circumstances and situation leading to the hospitalisation of the late Hon'ble Chief Minister on September 22, 2016 and subsequent treatment provided till her unfortunate demise on December 5, 2016.” While making the announcement about the commission on August 16, Palaniswami said the commission was appointed as there were representations from several organisations seeking an inquiry into her death.

Chennai: A petition was on Monday filed in the Madras High Court for a direction to revoke the censor certificate issued for Vijay-starrer Tamil movie, 'Mersal'.

The petitioner, advocate A Ashvathaman, alleged that the film was full of "wrong propaganda about India and fake dialogues and scenes which obviously leads to misconception about the new taxation system of India and the Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 to the viewers."


"No picture shall be certified for public exhibition which will lower the moral standards of those who see it and the prevailing laws shall not be so ridiculed as to create sympathy for violation of such laws," he said.
The petitioner sought a direction from the court to revoke the censor certificate issued to the film besides an interim stay on the public exhibition of the movie.

The movie, released on October 18, has kicked up a row with the BJP's Tamil Nadu unit taking exception to references about GST in the movie.

The BJP had objected to what it termed were "untruths" regarding the GST in the film and wanted dialogues on the central taxation to be deleted.

However, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, senior party leader P Chidambaram, DMK working president M K Stalin, veteran star Kamal Haasan and a host of Tamil cinema industry representatives have come out in support of the film crew on the issue.

Chennai: The Madras high court has restrained members of the Global Nurses Association of Tamil Nadu from continuing their strike until further orders.
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Justice T. Raja also directed the police authorities to provide protection to the premises of Kanchi Kamakoti Child Trust Hospital and SRM Institutes for Medical Science (SRM Institute of Science and Technology) to ensure ingress and egress of patients, doctors, other staff of the hospitals with ID card, executives, ambulance and vehicles.

The judge posted after two weeks, further hearing of the petitions filed by Kanchi Kamakoti Child Trust Hospital and SRM Institutes for Medical Science, which sought to declare the strike of the Global Nurses Association of Tamil Nadu and its members from October 11 as illegal and initiate appropriate action against the association for indulging in illegal strike contrary to the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act.

The judge said the first schedule of section 2 (n) (vi) of the Industrial Disputes Act has been declared as Public Utility Services for the purposes of this Act. Admittedly, in the present case, conciliation proceedings were also pending relating to the issue for which strike notice has been given. Therefore, during the pendency of the conciliation proceedings, the prohibition contained in Clause (d) of subsection (1) of section 22 has come into operation right from the date of the notice issued by the conciliation officer on October 11. Therefore, the strike being resorted to by the members of the Global Nurses Association was prima facie illegal in view of section 24 of the ID Act, the judge added.

The judge said when the poor innocent seriously injured patients were fighting for their lives in the petitioners’ hospitals, the staff nurses, members of the Association, cannot be oblivious to the serious consequences of their strike. If the members of the association were not prohibited from going on their strike, the precious life of the patients would be put to irreparable loss and injury. Therefore, the members of the Global Nurses Association were hereby injuncted from continuing their strike until further orders, the judge added.

The Madras High Court has reportedly postponed the hearing of the disqualification of 18 MLAs.TTV Dhinakaran has reportedly filed a petition in Madras High Court challenging the disqualification of 18 MLAs by the speaker. After the merger between TN CM Edappadi Palaniswami and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam, the 18 MLAs reportedly submitted their petition to the governor that they have lost their faith in the CM.

After the TN CM Edappadi K Palaniswami issued a statement saying that the former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s home in Poes garden will be made a memorial, Jayalalithaa’s niece J Deepa reportedly filed a case in the Madras High Court against EPS's statement. The Court has reportedly issued a notice to TN Government to come to a conclusion on this issue before October 23.