CHENNAI: The Chennai corporation on Saturday demolished the temple outside the Madras high court as per the orders of the court in December 2013.The corporation started demolition of the 30-year-old temple, which was built on the footpath at the north gate entrance of the court, at 11 pm on Saturday and finished razing down the structure by 3 am.
The Sri Needhi Karumariamman temple on NSC Bose road was constructed by Kantha Srinivasan. The temple was also known as MGR temple, because she had kept MGR’s photograph inside the temple and worshipped him every day.The Madras high court ordered demolition of the temple in December 2013 ruling that the construction on the footpath was an encroachment and caused inconvenience to pedestrians. But the corporation, which had sought the razing of the temple reversed its stance and sought a review of the high court order.
However, in November this year, the Madras high court strongly deprecated the conduct of the city corporation in filing a petition to review the court’s earlier order relating to removal of the temple constructed on public property.
“This is strange, rather a unique review petition filed by Chennai city municipal corporation after succeeding in the writ petition filed by an encroacher, challenging the eviction order passed by the corporation directing removal of a temple located on public property,” said a division bench, comprising justices Satish K. Agnihotri and K.K. Sasidharan, while dismissing the review petition filed by the corporation.
