The first Division Bench of the Madras High Court led by Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala on Tuesday referred to the third Division Bench led by Justice R. Mahadevan the three public interest litigation petitions filed against the proposed conduct of Formula 4 night street race in Chennai on December 9 and 10.
According to portfolio, all PILs were supposed to be heard by the first Bench comprising the Chief Justice and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy. However, the three PILs filed last week were heard by the Bench consisting of Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq because the Chief Justice sat in the Madurai Bench.
When the cases got listed before him on Tuesday after his return to the principal seat in Chennai, the Chief Justice was informed that the Bench led by Justice Mahadevan had heard the matter continuously for three days last week and also issued certain directions calling upon the records related to the conduct of the race.
Hence, the Chief Justice directed the Registry to list the cases before the same Bench. When the cases were listed on Friday (December 1, 2023), the Bench led by Justice Mahadevan had called for a MoU entered between Tamil Nadu government and Racing Promotions Private Limited for conducting the race.
The judges wanted to know if the State government would also get any revenue out of the sponsorships, broadcast rights and so on for the events to be conducted by the private company on the Madras Street Race Circuit being established on the public roads around the Island grounds in Chennai.
The circuit passes through Flag Staff Road and then a part of Kamarajar Salai through Napier Bridge before taking a turn at Sivanandam Salai to join a part of Anna Salai and then get connected back to Flag Staff Road. The pit stops for the race had been planned inside the Island Grounds.
