Madras High Court sets aside order to take over 7.44 acres of prime land in Chennai from Sri Ramachandra Educational and Health Trust

The Division Bench also set aside other directions issued by the single judge who had quashed a Government Order issued on June 12, 1998 permitting Tamil Nadu Housing Board to sell the land to the trust and the fixation of sale price at ₹6.01 lakh per ground in 2007. | Photo Credit: PICHUMANI K

The first Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday (October 15, 2026) set aside an order passed by a single judge on November 12, 2025 directing the Tamil Nadu government to take back 7.44 acres of land at Thiruvanmiyur in Chennai from Sri Ramachandra Educational and Health Trust.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan held that a single judge could not issue such a direction in a writ petition filed by a personally aggrieved party and that it could have been issued only by a Division Bench in a public interest litigation petition.