JUDGEMENTS

1.    Writ Petition No: 47702 of 2006 - Judgment Dated 18.11.2009

       In respect of the Writ petition filed against the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation and Govt. of Tamilnadu for action against unauthorized constructions of public buildings without parking area and unsafe public buildings, the Bench consisting The Hon'ble Mrs. Justice Prabha Sridevan  and The Hon'ble Mr. Justice M. Sathyanarayanan while passing the order in favour of Coimbatore Consumer Cause had observed as  “We place on record our appreciation for the efforts of the vigilant petitioner who has brought this to the notice of the Court”

2.     Writ Petition  No.6818 of 2009  -     Order Dated  23.11.2009

Similarly in the Public Interest Writ petition filed against the Govt. of Tamilnadu and Transport Commissioner, Chennai in respect action against Illegal and unsafe advertisements on the rear side windscreen of the Buses in the State, the Division Bench of Madras High court consisting the Honorable Mr. Justice J.Mukhopadhaya and the Honorable Mr. Justice R Sudhakar directed the Home Secretary of Tamilnadu Govt. to instruct his officials to take action on the illegal advertisements and also against the advertisements on the rear side wind screen of both private and State owned buses.   In the order the Division bench mentioned as   “The Court records its appreciation to the petitioner's forum for its able assistance to the Court in public interest”.

Some of the PILs filed were as under:

3.    VEHICLES DRIVEN BY LPG FUEL – AMENDMENT TO MV ACT  
(WP 6095/2000 – CHIEF JUSTICE Markandy Jatju AND JUSTICE D Murugesan  
-  Judgment Dt.18.07.2005

Several vehicles were illegally converted to LPG fuel and were plying on the road without considering the safety and legality by using LPG cylinders.   The Motor Vehicle Act specifically prohibited the usage of LPG fuel and hence no endorsement could be made in the RC Book.   Hence those LPG driven vehicles did not have any insurance cover, including third party insurance and the Oil companies also advised that it was highly dangerous to use the cylinders in motor vehicles.   Hence we filed a Writ Petition against Govt. of India, to bring in necessary amendment to the M.V.Act and to prescribe necessary Rules for useage of LPG fuel in motor vehicles.     Subsequently the Govt. of India had amended the M.V. Act and brought in necessary Rules prescribing norms for usage of LPG in motor vehicles and advised the Hon’ble Court in the matter.   Thus a long pending issue was settled after our Writ Petition.

4.    DISCRIMINATION IN THE PUBLICATION OF X AND XII RESULTS REMOVED –
WP 14809/2002 – Chief Justice B Subhashan Reddy and Justice Prabha Sridevan

The results of regular students of X and XII standard were published through Internet and mark sheets were issued immediately to them.  But in case of Private students, their results were not published in Internet and mark sheets were also issued only few days after the regular students.  Based on Internet marks, the regular students were able to get admission for their higher education.  Since the Private students were able to get their marks much later than the regular students, they were not able to get admission even though they obtained better marks.  Since the examinations were conducted common for both Private and Regular with one and same question paper, and the examination fees were the same and at the valuation of answer appears were undertaken simultaneously there was no justification to publish the results of private candidates alone with a delay of more than a week.  Since there was no level playing field for private students we filed a PIL against the Tamilnadu Govt. and Director of School Education to remove the discrimination.  The Govt. gave an undertaking in the Court that it would not only publish the results on the same date, but also distribute the Mark sheets of Private candidates and Regulars candidates on the same day.  The Govt. followed its commitment.    Hence the discrimination prevailing for several years was removed.

5.    REGULARIZATION OF UNAUTHORIZED CONSTRUCTIONS IN PARKING AREA 
AND UNSAFE PUBLIC BUILDINGS – AGAINST THE INTEREST OF 
THE PUBLIC  (WP 17879/2003)  Decided on 06.09.08

In our Writ Petition filed against the State of Tamilnadu and Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation, the Division bench of Hon’ble Mr. Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Hon’ble Mr.Justice S Tamilvanan of Madras High Court, allowed our petition against regularization of unauthorized or deviated development and construction of buildings, by Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation. 

In order to regularize all the unauthorized constructions, the Tamilnadu Govt. amended and introduced a new section 283-A in the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation Act, and the Tamilnadu Municipal Corporation (Regularization of unauthorized and Deviated Development and Construction of buildings) Rules, 2002.  It provides amnesty for all unauthorized and deviated buildings.  Thus, even public buildings without any safety to the public and without the statutory parking areas were also eligible and hence applied for regularization of their buildings.    Since accepting meager amount as fees and regularization of illegal public buildings cannot ensure safety to the public and compromised the safety in many public buildings, it was challenged by ‘Coimbatore Consumer Cause’ in the Hon’ble High Court.  We had questioned the offering of priced amnesty to the violators at the cost of the public safety and convenience.

Our petition was allowed by Hon’ble High court and the amendments made to Section 3 of Town and Country planning Laws (amendment) Act 2002 by introducing Sec.283-A in the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation Act 1981 and the TN Municipal Corporation (Regularization of Unauthorized and Deviated Development and construction of building) Rules 2002, were quashed.   Hence we prevented the legalization of illegal unsafe public buildings.

6.     NON ISSUANCE OF TRADE CERTIFICATES DUE TO NON-AFFILIATION

 OF COURSES -   WP 6134 / 2005  - Judgment Dt 19.04.2007

Justice Dharma Rao Elipie and Justice S Palanivelu

We received complaints that thousands of passed out students of Govt. I.T.I s could not get their National Trade Certificates (NTC) even after 12 years of completion of their courses, due to non-affiliation of the courses units with NCVT (National Council for Vocational Training) by Director General of Employment and

Training, New Delhi (DGET).   The certificate is most important for any Govt. job and also for jobs in foreign countries.    Since the Govt. could not sort out the problem we filed  PIL before the Hon’ble High Court.

Subsequently on the intervention of the Hon’ble High Court, several thousand students  though several thousand students were issued their NTC certificates.      We helped the  several thousand students to get their NTC who could not their Certificates for 13 years.  

7.   TNEB REFUNDED EXCESS SECURITY DEPOSIT –

WP 24044/2005 Chief Justice Mr.Markanday Katju and Justice F M Ibrahim
Kalifulla Jdjmt Dt. 27.07.05

The Tamilnadu Electricity Board demanded and started collecting additional security deposit based on the application load and the minimum deposit amount enquired from each consumer was Rs.3000/- per Three-phase connection.   Before that,  the TNEB was collecting security deposit based on the consumption of electricity.    Since the security deposit should be only accordingly to the consumption of electricity by the consumers and not on the application load we objected to the demand of the Electricity Board.   In some of the areas of Coimbatore Region, the Board started collecting the additional security deposit.   Hence we filed a PIL before the Hon’ble High Court.    Subsequently the Board stopped the collection of such additional security deposit.   On our representation the amount, which was already collected from the consumers and was more than Two crores in Coimbatore alone was refunded to the consumers.   If we had not challenged the Board’s order, more than 70 crores might have been collected from the consumers.

8.    COLLECTION OF PARKING FEES AT COIMBATORE STOPPED

The Corporation collected parking fees from the public for parking vehicles on the roadside.  Further parking fees were also collected for parking the vehicles inside the Govt. buildings, including the court complex.   We opposed such parking fees and filed a case against the Corporation.   Subsequently the roadside parking fees and in other Govt. buildings were stopped.

9.   COLLECTION EXCESS FARE FOR 5 KMS STOPPED (266/91)

During the year 1991, when the bus fares were increased by Govt., the State Owned Transport Corporation had not only increased the bus fares accordingly but also increased the distance of Coimbatore – Tirupur and Mettupalayam – Tirupur by 5 kms.    Instead of collecting fare for 53 kms the Corporation buses started collecting the fare for 58 kms, which was challenged in the Court.   Subsequently the collection of fare for the 5 kms was stopped.     Had it not been challenged, now the public traveling between Coimbatore and Tirupur as well as Mettupalayam and Tirupur,  have to pay additional Rs.1.50 per ticket.     Thus we saved crores of rupees of the people. 

10. EXCESS SLEEPER CHARGES IN CHERAN EXPRESS STOPPED (3/90 & MP 15/90)

During the year 1990, additional sleeper charges were collected from passengers traveling beyond 500 kms.     Even though the Cheran Express between Coimbatore and Chennai covers only a maximum distance of 493 kms, the Railways were collecting additional sleeper charges for the quota tickets as if the traveling distance was more than 500 kms.    On filing the case against the Railways and on the basis of the order of the court and after issuing arrest warrant against General Manger, Southern Railways, Chennai,  the fares were reduced then.