Madras High Court clears decks for KKNPP commissioning

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Chennai: Paving the way for commissioning of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant (KKNPP), the Madras high court on Monday dismissed two public interest litigations against completing the project without complying with the directions of the Supreme Court.
A division bench, comprising acting chief justice R.K. Agrawal and Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, dismissed the PILs filed by G. Sundarrajan.
Disposing of another PIL from advocate P. Pugalenthi seeking to direct the state government to withdraw all the criminal cases filed against the anti-nuke protestors, the bench said 216 cases have been registered under various sections of IPC and section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Public Property (prevention of damage and loss) Act.
The TN government was under an obligation to maintain law and order. Taking into consideration the situation prevalent in and around Kudankulam and in view of the continuing ongoing agitation by the local residents, the government has taken a decision to postpone/defer the withdrawal of cases.
Given the facts and circumstances of the case, it cannot be stated that the apprehension expressed by the state government was not genuine.  Therefore, the petition was disposed of with a direction to the home secretary to act in accordance with direction-14 of the SC.