Chennai: The Madras high court reserved orders on a petition filed by the DMK party which sought to restrain state government from preventing or interfering or interrupting the visit of its working president M.K.Stalin in the state for the purpose of visiting water bodies being de-silted by DMK cadres.
Justice M.Duraiswamy reserved orders on the petition filed by the DMK represented by its legal wing secretary R. Girirajan, after hearing
arguments from both sides.
When the case came up for hearing, senior counsel R. Shanmughasundaram appearing for the DMK furnished a list of 128 persons who will accompany Stalin during his visit to the water bodies. Of the 128, 30 will accompany Stalin and the remaining will stay at a distance, he added.
Additional advocate general S.T.S.Moorthy submitted that DMK cadres were renovating tanks and Stalin has been visiting those places. He was moving freely throughout the state and government was not preventing his visits. However, government opposed his visit to Kacharyan Kuttai as de-silting work there was done by government and not by DMK cadres. If the interim prayer to allow him to visit Kacharyan Kuttai was permitted, everybody would then say that they had done the work, he added.
Government had no objection to Stalin visiting places where de-silting was done by DMK cadres. There were thousands of lake where de-silting was done, and of these, 100 or fewer were de-silted by DMK cadres. On July 27, he was prevented because there was a law and order problem in the area. Several buses were damaged. DMK party cadres prevented passengers from travelling.
If they were allowed to go to Kuttai, a law and problem will arise, he added. The judge said that the number of persons who accompany the working president can be restricted, but he cannot be prevented. How can you prevent a person from visiting a place? It is against the Constitution.
The prayer in the main petition also covers the interim prayer to allow him to visit Kacharyan Kuttai. Directing senior counsel Shanmughasundaram to restrict the number of persons accompanying Stalin to 25, the judge said he would pass orders.
