Centre seeks to implead in Queen Mary's College demolition case

The Centre on Wednesday sought to be implead itself in the Queen Mary's College demolition case pending before the Madras high court.

Additional Solicitor General V T Gopalan cited Tuesday's notification banning the demolition of heritage buildings along the 6000-kilometre long coast in the country in support.

With the first bench of the court, comprising Chief Justice B Subhashan Reddy and Justice Ibrahim Kalifullah, having reserved its verdict on the petitions challenging the state government decision to demolish the Queen Mary's College to house a new Secretariat complex, Advocate General N R Chandran, opposed the Centre's move.

Chandran submitted that the state government had not received a copy of the Centre's notification, issued by the Union environment ministry, headed by T R Baalu of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The bench then posted the case for Monday, April 28.

Acting on a batch of writ petitions filed by QMC students and others, the high court had stayed the demolition until it pronounced the final verdict.