MADURAI: The Madurai bench of Madras High Court on Thursday came down heavily on the Centre for not implementing the court orders.

The court expressed its displeasure while hearing a petition filed by G Theeran Thirumurugan of Ramanathapuram, who sought the bench to direct respondents to make ‘Tamil translated copy’ of the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023, upload the same on the official website and consequently receive suggestions in Tamil language within a stipulated time.

In Tamil Nadu, a huge number of people, who could not read or write English and Hindi, were directly or indirectly dependent on forest land for their livelihood, the petitioner said and added that it was necessary that the amendment Bill, which was available only in English now, must be published in Tamil.

A division bench of Justices R Subramanian and L Victoria Gowri questioned the counsel on the urgency of appealing against the interim stay. The court had already issued several directions to the union government, but none of them were implemented. The bench directed the counsel to represent the demand through a petition before the court for prosecution.