The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed that no further action can be taken on the bids received for construction of a building for Revenue Divisional Office and residential quarters at Ulaganeri.
Taking up a petition filed for restraining revenue officials from utilising the vacant land at Government Higher Secondary School, Othakadai, for the construction for hearing, a division bench of Justices M. Venugopal and Abdul Quddhose said that the tender bids received should be kept enclosed in a sealed cover and not opened.
Shanta Moorthy, in his petition, said that revenue officials, after removing the encroachments on the land as per the direction of the High Court, were planning to construct the office building and quarters, issued notice for tender and received bids for the same.
The Revenue Divisional Officer, in a counter, said that the land was sub-divided and a portion was handed over to the Public Works Department for construction of office and quarters. The counter further stated that this would protect the school from any encroachment and trespass. The State, being the owner of the land, was only utilising a part of the plot for the purpose of constructing an office building and quarters.
The petitioner had also filed a contempt petition against the respondents saying that the directions of the court were being violated. He said that the plot belonging to the school was needed for infrastructure development. The bench directed the other respondents to file their counters by November 8. The case was posted for further hearing on November 8.