Plea for CBI, DRI probe for trust vote extraneous, submits Chief Minister

Filing a counter in response to a miscellaneous petition moved by DMK leader MK Stalin that AIADMK MLAs’ were on sale ahead of the trust vote and a probe by the CBI and DRI was required in this regard, the Chief Minister submitted that no case has been made out either in law or in facts to implead both the agencies as respondents as they cannot in anyway address the issue regarding the proceedings, which took place inside the Legislative Assembly. 

He also noted that DMK’s plea seeking to implead both the agencies is traversing far beyond the scope of the main writ petition, which merely challenges the vote of confidence. The Secretary, Legislative Assembly, in a separate counter while referring to the allegations of the sting operation regarding the payments made to several ruling party MLAs’, said as Assembly Secretary, he is concerned only with what happened inside the Assembly and that the alleged acts or happenings that transpired outside is not his  concern. 

He also noted that while the Governor has directed the Assembly Speaker to look into the allegation of payoffs following a representation made by the petitioner, the issue was also raised in the Assembly on June 14. However, it was declined as the issue falls within the privilege of the House, he added.

The Madras High Court has been moved seeking to stay the common counselling of the single window admission to engineering colleges scheduled to be held on June 27 as it leaves a lot of seats vacant resulting in a severe loss to private engineering colleges.

Justice M M Sundresh, before whom the petition filed by Tirunelveli Anna University of Technology Self-Financing Engineering Colleges Management Association came up, directed the Anna University counsel to get instructions on the issue and posted the case for further hearing to Tuesday. The association president S Mohamed Jaleel submitted that as per the Tamil Nadu Admission in Professional Educational Institutions Act, 65 per cent of the total seats available in the unaided engineering institutions and 50 per cent of the seats in minority unaided engineering institutions are to be surrendered to the state for admission through common counselling. The object of filling all the seats that are surrendered to the state has almost become impractical since the introduction of the concept, the petitioner said. While stating that the entire TNEA process leaves these educational institutions with no time to fill the lapsed seats, which are returned to the colleges, the petitioner said every vacant seat casts an irreconcilable financial burden on the college.

The Centre in its counter affidavit submitted at the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Thursday had said that only the state government should decide the place to set up an AIIMS. 

Petitioner Baskar from Madurai, in his petition, had stated that there are five multi-specialty hospitals at Chennai and hence people there are getting quality treatment. But, due to the absence of such hospitals in southern districts people here do not get access to quality treatment. So, the Centre should set up an AIIMS hospital at Madurai. A similar petition was filed by KK Ramesh urging the Centre to announce the facility at Madurai. In its counter to the petition of Baskar, the Centre stated that in 2014 budget, the Union government had announced an AIIMS hospital for Tamil Nadu. Any place with 200 acres of land with good electricity and water supply can be chosen for the hospital. Only the state government should identify and decide the place where the facility must come up. On submission of the said affidavit, the judges merged the similar petitions and adjourned the hearing to July 12. 

A plea challenging the validity of a section of TASMAC Rules of 2003 was filed at Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Thursday and the court had issued notice to the state on the issue.  Petitioner Prabakaran from Madurai, in his PIL, had stated that there is a rule that the TASMAC shop should not be located within 50 metres of educational institutions and places of worship. But, there is also another rule that the distance would not be considered when the educational institution or places of worship are set up after the shops were opened. Officials conveniently cite the second rule and dismiss the residents’ petitions to shift the TASMAC shops.