Mrs.S.Sujatha, v. The State Of Tamil Nadu,

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS

DATED: 12.07.2023 CORAM :

THE HON'BLE MR.SANJAY V.GANGAPURWALA, CHIEF JUSTICE AND THE HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE P.D.AUDIKESAVALU

1. S.Sujatha

2. N.Sathish Kumar

3. B.Vidiyanadhan

4. I.C.Alice Prema

5. George Thomas

6. Raju Thomas

7. Khurrma Rabbani Samdami

8. T.P.Jayanthi

9. V.Vasu

10. Sr.Raju

11. Pradeep T.N.

12. S.Mary

13. R.Lalitha

14. Maran

15. J.Vijayalakshmi

16. S.Sivarama Krishnan

17. R.Soundarajan

18. Dominic Ravikumar

19. T.Vanadhi Devi

20. G.Sridharan Murali

21. S.Suresh/Chitra Suresh

22. V.Saikala

23. S.Chandraika

24. R.Venkatraman

25. V.Sathish

26. Lame George

27. Prejit.P

28. Jackson Prithiviraj

29. Krishna Kumar Vadivelu

30. S.Sampath Kumar

31. V.S.Dinesha

32. P.L. Amalarinva Mary

33. C. Priyadarsini

34. K. Sriram

35. U. Anuradha

36. Balaji

37. Elango Dorairaj

38. K. Arun

39. Antony Expedit

40. Premavathy Farnando

41. J. Saroja

42. A.T. Vasudevan

43. Hema Vasudevan

44. V. Ponnudurai Franklin

45. M.J. Tarun

46. S. Ranganatha Rao

47. G. Bhanumathy

48. T.S. RamaMurthi

49. V.R. Kasthuri bai

50. P. Dinesh Kumar

51. A.N. Balaji

52. M. Yokaysh

53. S. Shankar

54. T.N. Ragavendra Rao

55. K.G. Parthasarathy

56. K. Abishek

57. Y.R. Bhaskar

58. Sreenivasn

59. Joanna

60. Suresh Babu

61. Md. Farhathullah

62. T. Radhakrishnan

63. Mathuram Krishnan

64. C. C. Johnny

65. Chitramohan

66. K. Balasubramanian

67. P.V. Vasudevan

68. D. Emberumannar

69. V. Gayathri

70. T.S. Hema

71. S. Vijayan

72. Rajalakshmi

73. Lalitha RamaKrishnan

74. B. Chitra Balasubramanian

75. R. Savithri

76. Alex P.Varghese

77. K. Sridhar

78. K. Nagarajan

79. J. Pricilla Pandian

80. B. John Pandian

81. T.R. Srinivas

82. N. Muthuraman

83. R. Sivaramakrishnan

84. J. Prathiban

85. Mudavakkat Anadan

86. B. Ramamurthy

87. M.R. Ramaswamy

88. J. Sathya Moorthy

89. M.Sumathi

90. M.Sumathi

91. Selva kumar

92. Jaya Chitra

93. SriKrishna

94. G. Kamachi

95. M.S. Moorthy

96. P.C. Ramanujam

97. V. Manjula

98. M. Muthulakshmi

99. Gopinath Goswami

100. V. KothandaRamaswamy

101. Subramanian

102. P.S. Venu

103. K. Venkatesh

104. B. Sakthivel

105. S. Ramachandran

106. Jaya Sathiya

107. K. Rathina Sabapathy

108. E. Subashchandar

109. Paul FredricRoopesh

110. N. Viswanathan

111. Kothai

112. R Clement Paul Elango ..

Petitioners Vs.

1. The State of Tamil Nadu Rep. by Principal Secretary to Government Housing and Urban Development Department Fort St. George, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600 009.

2. The Member Secretary Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority No.1, Gandhi Irwin Road Egmore, Chennai 600 008.

3. The Commissioner Greater Chennai Corporation Ripon Building Chennai 600 003.

..

Respondents Prayer: Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking a writ of declaration, declaring the "Tamil Nadu Assessment and Collection of Amount for Exemption of Buildings Rules, 2017"

issued vide G.O.(Ms) 110 (Housing and Urban Development [UD4(3)] Department dated 22.06.2017 as unconstitutional for being arbitrary, unreasonable, unfair and ultra-vires Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, insofar as it seeks to impose arbitrary, unfair and illegal pre-conditions for regularization.

For the Petitioners : Mr.Adithya Reddy For the Respondents : Mr.K.M.D.Muhilan Additional Government Pleader for R1 Mr.S.Thiruvengadam for R2 Mr.A.Nagarajan for R3

ORDER

(Made by the Hon'ble Chief Justice) Both side learned counsel are ad idem that the petitioners herein are similarly situated to that of the petitioners of W.P.Nos.23889 of 2017 and 23119 of 2018, which are disposed of under a common order dated 03.07.2023. The order in W.P.Nos.23889 of 2017 and 23119 of 2018 reads thus:

"We have heard Mr.V.B.R.Menon, the petitioner appearing in person in W.P.No.23889 of 2017; Mr.Suhrit Parthasarathy, learned counsel for the petitioner in W.P.No.23119 of 2018;

Mr.R.Shunmugasundaram, learned AdvocateGeneral, assisted by Mr.P.Muthukumar, learned State Government Pleader for respondents 1 to 3 and 5 in W.P.No.23889 of 2017 and the second respondent in W.P.No.23119 of 2018 and, Mr.P.Kumaresan, learned Additional Advocate General, assisted by Mrs.P.Veena Suresh, learned counsel for respondent No.4 in W.P.No.23889 of 2017 and the first respondent in W.P.No.23119 of 2018.

2. Mr.V.B.R.Menon, the petitioner appearing in person in W.P.No.23889 of 2017 and Mr.Suhrith Parthasarathy, learned counsel for the petitioner in W.P.No.23119 of 2018, are ad idem that the Government Orders assailed in the present writ petitions have already been set aside by this Court in Contempt Petition No.1087 of 2017 (C.Prabhakaran v. Dhamendra Pratap Yadav, IAS, Secretary, Housing and Urban Development

Department, Fort St. George, Chennai-9 and others) and W.P.No.24705 of 2017 and Sub Application No.210 of 2017 under the order dated 06.02.2019.

3. It is submitted by Mr.V.B.R.Menon and learned counsel for the petitioner in W.P.No.23119 of 2018 that they are challenging the same Government Orders in the present writ petitions. The present writ petitions are seeking directions not to regularize the unauthorised constructions in view of the said Government Orders.

4. If, according to the petitioners, the Government Orders are already set aside in one matter, the same would stand good unless the judgment of this Court is set aside by the Apex Court.

5. It is submitted that some of the parties have moved the Apex Court and the Apex Court is seized of the matter. Naturally, the parties would be bound by the orders that would be passed by the Apex Court.

6. In the light of the above, there is no propriety in keeping these matters pending.

7. We, accordingly, dispose of the writ petitions with an observation that if subsequently after the orders are passed by the Apex Court the petitioners have any remedy open, they are entitled to agitate the same afresh. In that event, all contentions are kept open.

There will be no order as to costs.

Consequently, W.M.P.Nos.25140, 25141 of 2017, 27002 and 27003 of 2018 are closed.

W.M.P.No.19536 of 2020 filed by the applicant to implead himself as one of the respondent in W.P.No.23889 of 2017 is closed in the light of the order passed hereinabove."

2. In the light of that, we follow the same course and pass the same order.

3. The writ petition, as such, is disposed of with an observation that if subsequent to the orders to be passed by the Apex Court the petitioners have any remedy open, they are entitled to agitate the same afresh. In that event, all contentions of the parties are kept open. There will be no order as to costs. Consequently, W.M.P.No.9665 of 2018 is closed.

(S.V.G., CJ.) (P.D.A., J.) 12.07.2023 Index :

Yes/No :

Yes/No drm To

1. The Principal Secretary to Government The State of Tamil Nadu Housing and Urban Development Department Fort St. George, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600 009.

2. The Member Secretary Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority No.1, Gandhi Irwin Road Egmore, Chennai 600 008.

3. The Commissioner Greater Chennai Corporation Ripon Building, Chennai 600 003.

THE HON'BLE CHIEF JUSTICE AND P.D.AUDIKESAVALU, J.

(drm) W.P.No .7766 of 2018 12.07.2023