SC seeks Tamil Nadu, MoEF’s response on Chennai-Salem highway project

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the Tamil Nadu government and the Union environment ministry to the National Highway Authority of India’s appeal against a Madras High Court order that had quashed land acquisition for the Chennai-Salem highway.

A bench comprising Justices Indu Malhotra and MR Shah, while ordering to send notices to the state and the central ministry, didn’t grant an urgent stay that the NHAI had sought on the Madras High Court’s order. The Rs 10,000-crore work, part of the centrally-sponsored Bharatmala Pariyojana project, is opposed by sections of landowners and political parties in Tamil Nadu. The case will be taken up for further hearing in the first week of July, said lawyers present in the court on Monday.