Move SC for withdrawing KKNPP cases: HC

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Wednesday said it was open to the petitioner to ap­pr­oach the Supreme Court for the implementation of the direction of the ap­ex co­urt (relating to wi­th­dr­a­wal of criminal cases registered against persons in­vo­l­ved in the agitation in co­n­ne­ction with the Ku­da­nk­ul­am nuclear power project).

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice R.K. Agrawal and Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, disposed of the petition filed by advocate P. Pugalenthi.

The bench said earlier, this court had directed the authorities to act as expeditiously as possible in accordance with direction No.14 of the Supreme Court judgment.

Now the petitioner came forward to file this petition stating that since KKNPP has already been commissioned and its first unit has already been synchronised with the grid and was generating electricity, the authorities ou­ght to have withdrawn all the criminal cases filed against persons involved in the agitations in terms of the earlier order of this court dated July 29, 2013.

M. Radhakrishnan, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that no steps have been taken to withdraw the criminal cases. The court sa­id it was open to the petitioner to approach the SC praying for the implementation of direction 14.