MADURAI: The Madras High Court today directed the Madurai District Collector to expunge the remarks in a notice he issued to Union Minister M K Alagiri and other members of a trust that said the district administration was "crystal clear" about alleged violation of certain conditions in the construction of a building for an engineering college run by the trust.The direction was given by a bench here of Justices P Jyothimani and M M Sundresh when the petition seeking to quash the notice issued to the Union Minister, his wife Gandhi Alagiri and son Dayanidhi Alagiri came up before them."If the Collector has decided that offences have been made, then why should he seek an explanation and ask the Minister and others to appear for an inquiry?" the court told the Government pleader."Either you expunge the remarks and issue a fresh notice or we will quash the notice in the present form", the court said.It also said the Collector, U Sagayam, should not proceed with the inquiry tomorrow when Alagiri and other members of the trust have been summoned to reply before him. The notice was issued on September 6.Alagiri's advocate Veerakathiravan said there was no need for the administration to summon the minister if it had decided that there had been encroachments.The M K Alagiri Trust, which runs the Dhaya Engineering College at Sivarakototai near here, had filed the writ petition challenging the notice issued by the Collector asking the trustees to appear before him tomorrow.The Collector had issued notice seeking explanation as to why action should not be taken against the three under Tamil Nadu Irrigation works (Construction of field Bothies Act) 1959, Tamil Nadu Farmers Management of Irrigation system Act 2000, and Tamil Nadu Protection of Tanks and Eviction of Encroachments Act 2007.The Collector had said in the notice that he inspected the tank and found that some channels branching out from Karisalkulam channel had been destroyed by the college management.Alagiri denied the allegations and submitted in court that "not even a single square foot of land" had been encroached.He claimed that the trust put up construction for running an engineering college within its own patta land. Official clearance for the college had been made and the Collector was acting in a biased manner at the instance of the ruling party, he alleged.The case was posted for further hearing tomorrow.
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