The Madras high court on Wednesday held that the rear portion of the P. Orr & Sons building is not a heritage structure and dismissed with a cost of Rs 5 lakh a petition from the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) challenging the decision of the authorities to pull down the rear portion of the building to pave way for Chennai Metro Rail project.
A division bench of Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M. Venugopal also directed the state government to remove Intach from the Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC) and from any such other committees within two
weeks and fill up such vacancies with more suitable candidates with proven standards in the field.
The bench held that only the front portion of the P. Orr & Sons building was a Grade-I heritage structure. The original owner of the building himself has submitted to the acquisition proceedings, leading to passage of award.
The petitioner, being a member of HCC cannot challenge the resolution passed by the very committee approving the proposal of CMRL. If the petitioner was unhappy with the resolution it should have challenged the resolution of the committee.
“This petition filed by the petitioner entering into the shoes of the tenant (P. Orr & Sons) is nothing but a corporal teasing, to obstruct the ongoing CMRL project, for which this petition is liable to be dismissed with costs,” the bench said.
The bench expressed its anguish over a section of print media (not Deccan Chronicle) publishing articles and views of the readers about the fate of the building post-litigation “without even understanding the concept of heritage building”.
This was nothing but an act tantamount to interfering into the justice delivery system. When an issue was subjudice, utmost restraint was expected not only from the parties concerned but also from any other members of the society, from expressing their own versions and opinions, the bench said.