Counting of Bar Council votes should be done district-wise: Madras High Court

Chennai: Counting of votes to be polled in the election to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on March 28 shall be conducted only district-wise and not booth-wise, the Madras High Court has ruled. A Division Bench made the observation while disposing of a PIL on Tuesday.

The Bench said that this direction, in effect would sufficiently address the plea of the petitioner to avoid identification of the voting pattern in particular booths. “Of course, in the event of the Returning Officer considering it necessary and for any reason whatsoever, not to take into account the ballots in particular booth/booths, the same will be kept apart and not mixed with other ballots,” the Bench added. 

Rejection of application for GI tag to MP basmati rice challenged

Chennai: The government of Madhya Pradesh and Madhya Kshetra Basmati Growers Association Samiti have approached the Madras High Court questioning the order of the Indian Geographical Indication (GI) Registry’s rejection of their application for GI tag to basmati rice grown in their State.

Justice M Duraiswami before whom the writ petition came up on Tuesday ordered notice to the GI Registry and others, returnable by April 23.

The GI Registry in Chennai on March 15 last rejected the opposition raised by the Madhya Pradesh, saying the documents filed by it showed the importance and special characters of rice cultivated in the state, but not the basmati cultivation in the traditional growing area. It was the claim of Madhya Pradesh that 13 of its districts had been growing basmati rice for several decades.

Tender notification for ad rights at airport upheld

Chennai: The Madras High Court has upheld a tender notification issued by Airports Authority of India (AAI) inviting bids for granting licence for ‘exclusive advertisement rights’ to design, develop, operate and market the advertising opportunity in the entire estate at Chennai airport.

It is for the owner to impose terms and conditions which suit them to select a qualified person and neither the intended bidder nor any other third party has any right whatsoever or justification to dictate terms to the owner as to how the terms and conditions should be, so long as those terms and conditions are not opposed to public policy, the court said on Tuesday. It was dismissing a writ petition by TDI International India (P) Ltd. challenging certain clauses in the bid.

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Kancheepuram Collector to conduct a field inspection for deciding the question with regard to jurisdiction of Kelambakkam and Pudupakkam panchayats near Chennai.

The Bench was dismissing a writ appeal from the president of Kelambakkam village panchayat. “Even though time and again the Union government made it clear that the disputes between two departments must be settled by the government rather than taking up the issue to the courts for adjudication, the fact remains that the courts are flooded with litigations, intra-departmental, inter-departmental and between panchayat versus panchayat,” the Bench said.