Madras HC Division Bench stays single judge’s order favouring allotment of Kalaignarin Kanavu Illam houses to Tamil writers

A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday (August 8, 2025) stayed the operation of an order passed by a single judge who had quashed a Government Order (G.O.) issued on March 4, 2024, for cancelling the allotment of houses in Shenoy Nagar and Anna Nagar in Chennai to noted Tamil writers Maraimalai Ilakkuvanar and G. Thilagavathy, also a retired IPS officer, under the Kalaignarin Kanavu Illam scheme.

The Bench comprising Justices J. Nisha Banu and M. Jothiraman granted the interim stay following a writ appeal filed by the State government against the single judge’s order. In the meantime, two new writ petitions filed by lyricist R. Vairamuthu and Tamil scholar M. Rajendran, challenging the cancellation of similar allotments, were listed for admission before Justice N. Anand Venkatesh on Friday.

The judge ordered notices to the government in the two new writ petitions and adjourned them to be decided after the writ appeals get disposed of finally.