The Centre on Wednesday sought to be implead itself in the Queen Mary's College demolition case pending before the Madras high court.

Additional Solicitor General V T Gopalan cited Tuesday's notification banning the demolition of heritage buildings along the 6000-kilometre long coast in the country in support.

With the first bench of the court, comprising Chief Justice B Subhashan Reddy and Justice Ibrahim Kalifullah, having reserved its verdict on the petitions challenging the state government decision to demolish the Queen Mary's College to house a new Secretariat complex, Advocate General N R Chandran, opposed the Centre's move.

Chandran submitted that the state government had not received a copy of the Centre's notification, issued by the Union environment ministry, headed by T R Baalu of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The bench then posted the case for Monday, April 28.

Acting on a batch of writ petitions filed by QMC students and others, the high court had stayed the demolition until it pronounced the final verdict.

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