Date:05/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/05/stories/2008120554300400.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Court holds petition maintainable

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has held maintainable, a petition seeking a writ of quo warranto directing the Centre to show on what authority M.S. Ananth, Director, IIT-Madras, can hold the post.

Allowing an appeal filed by E. Muralidharan, a Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice A.K.Ganguly and Justice F.M.Ibrahim Kalifulla, remanded the matter for fresh consideration on merits before Justice K. Chandru.

The Bench said that since the matter was pending in the court for some time, it hoped and expected that the matter would be disposed of by Mr.Justice Chandru as early as possible, preferably within two months.

The Judges made it clear that they had not made any pronouncements on the merits of the case.

Earlier, a single Judge had dismissed the petition not on merit but on grounds of maintainability.

The Bench said that when a petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution had been dismissed as withdrawn without any discussion on the merits of the case, that could not bar the petitioner’s access to a writ court.

Therefore, the writ petition was maintainable and the impugned judgment of the single Judge was being set aside.