HC asks railways to spell out its stand on reinstallation of fish sculpture

Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday sought response from the railways on their stand on reinstallation of the fish sculpture at an alternative site on the Madurai junction premises.

A Division Bench of Justices R. Suresh Kumar and R. Vijayakumar took note of the fact that development works to the tune of ₹300 crore had started at Madurai junction and even though an approval order had been issued for the reinstallation of the fish sculpture on the premises, the same had not fructified.

The railway authorities submitted that the earlier portion of the land earmarked for the fish sculpture at the junction might be required for development works. The court directed the railways to inform the court about the alternative site for the fish sculpture and adjourned the hearing till June 14.

The court allowed a sub-application filed by Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry to implead them in the case and also allowed the petitioner to file an application to restore Madurai Corporation as a party to the case. The court said that Madurai Corporation shall be added as a party to assist the court and not as a contemnor.

Earlier, the court had sought a response from the Divisional Railway Manager on the contempt petition complaining about the failure of the authorities to reinstall the fish sculpture in front of Madurai junction.

A contempt petition was filed by advocate G. Thirumurugan of Tiruvadanai in Ramanathapuram district. He had earlier filed a public interest litigation petition seeking a direction to the authorities to reinstall the fish sculpture at the junction which was removed ahead of beautification works. After the railway authorities submitted before the court during the hearing in the public interest litigation petition that the fish sculpture had been reinstalled, the court observed that the prayer in the petition had become infructuous. Recording the submission made in the petition, the court dismissed the petition.

However, the petitioner said that he visited the junction subsequently and was shocked to find that the fish sculpture had not been reinstalled. He sought appropriate action against the authorities for failing to reinstall the sculpture which used to adorn the eastern entry of Madurai junction.