8-lane highway: SC refuses to stay HC order

A vacation bench comprising Justices Indu Malhotra and M R Shah however issued notices to the parties including the Tamil Nadu government on the appeal of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), an autonomous agency of the central government, which has challenged the high court order.

“We are going to issue notices on the special leave petition (SLP)... We are not going to stay the high court’s order,” it said, while declining the plea of the Project Implementation Unit of NHAI that the high court’s order be stayed.

NHAI had moved the top court on May 31 and the bench had then agreed to hear the appeal. The high court’s order had come on a batch of petitions filed by 35 land owners and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss. The pleas had challenged the land acquisition proceedings.

The 277.3-km-long eight-lane greenfield project connecting Salem and Chennai has been facing opposition from a section of locals, including farmers, over fears of losing their land, besides environmentalists who are against felling trees for it. The project also runs through a reserve forest and water bodies.