Petition filed against Center in Madras High Court questioning ‘Dam Safety Act, 2021’

Shivani Gadhavi

Published On: January 07, 2022 at 16:16 IST

A Lok Sabha Member of Parliament S Ramalingam from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham Party recently approached the Madras High Court on January 4, 2022 via filing a Petition in order to question the Constitutional Validity of the Dam Safety Act, 2021.

The First Bench of Madras High Court on January 4, 2022 granted permission to Senior Advocate and Lok Sabha Member of Parliament P Wilson from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham who requested urgent hearing of the case. The Madras High Court Bench has kept January 10, 2022 as the date of hearing for the matter.

P Wilson in the Petition stated that they are challenging the ‘Dam Safety Act. 2021’ on the grounds that the Parliament does not have any Legislative capacity to formulate the Act and give it Legal Constitutionality as it comes under the Legislation of the State Government.

S Ramalingam stated, “I state that the impugned Act is a Legislation passed by the Union through brute majority to blatantly usurp the states’ power, in broad daylight when the Legislators like me were helpless to prevent the violence done to the Constitution.”

The Petitioner also stated, “However, I have the utmost faith and belief that the Constitutional Courts will certainly annul Unconstitutional Laws exercising the power of Judicial Review.”

The Petitioner submitted that there was no representation of State Government in the Committee that was formed for Enactment of the Dam Safety Act, 2021. The Committee named National Committee on Dam Safety and also the National Dam Safety Authority had not included State representatives for the formulation of Act.

S Ramalingam stated, “The Union representatives, who will be sitting in some other corner of country will not have the expertise nor the practical awareness to take such decisions and hence this renders the entire process futile.”

Also read: Critical Analysis of Dam Safety Bill, 2021

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