Plea to safeguard captive elephants in temples, other places

The Madras High Court on Tuesday reserved orders on an application filed by Madras Race Club (MRC) seeking exemption from the requirement of issuing a two-month long pre-suit notice to the State government before filing a civil suit against the recent premature termination of a 99-year-long lease granted to it in 1946 with respect to 160.86 acres of land at Guindy in Chennai.

Justice RMT. Teekaa Raman deferred his decision after hearing senior counsel AL. Somayaji for MRC; senior counsel Dushyant Dave and P. Wilson for the Revenue Secretary and Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran for Chennai Collector. He also heard senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan for Tamil Nadu Race Horse Owners Association and Tamil Nadu Race Horse Trainers Welfare Association.

Section 80(1) of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) states that no suit could be filed against the Centre or the State government without issuing a 60-day notice. However, Section 80(2) empowers the courts to dispense with the requirement if it was convinced that there was an urgent and immediate need for the plaintiff to obtain an urgent interim relief against the government.