Declaring horticultural society as owner stayed

CHENNAI:  The State government itself has already stayed the orders of the District Revenue Officer/Chennai District Collector declaring that the land measuring four cawnies and 18 grounds on both the sides of Cathedral Road belonged to the Agri-Horticultural Society, Advocate-General (A-G) A Navaneethakrishnan informed the Madras High Court on Friday. The AG said this when a public interest writ petition from Y Bhuvanesh Kumar of Teynampet seeking to declare as void the entire proceedings of the District Collector dated August 22 this year, came up before the first bench comprising Chief Justice MY Eqbal and Justice TS Sivagnanam on Friday.The bench observed that “it appears that the impugned order has been stayed and the government, exercising its jurisdiction, had decided to review the order passed by the DRO/Dist Collector”. The November 1 order stated that after a careful consideration of the connected records of the Collectorate, it had been decided to review the orders of the DRO/District Collector (incharge) under the suo-motu powers vested with the Commissioner of Land Administration. Hence, the orders passed by the DRO/DC were stayed until the suo-motu revision is completed. The bench noted that the stay order passed by the Commissioner of Land Administration on November 1 had been challenged by the Horticultural Society in a separate writ petition.“In the aforesaid premises, when the order dated November 1 itself has become the subject matter of the writ petition, the present PIL (from Bhuvanesh Kumar), in our view, had become infructuous, which is accordingly dismissed,” the Bench said.