Madras HC declines to stall TN govt’s Formula 4 night street car race in Chennai

Chennai, Aug 29 (PTI) The Madras High Court on Thursday declined to stall the Formula 4 Street Car Race, South Asia’s first night race, to be held here from August 31 to September 1, after the Tamil Nadu government agreed to submit FIA certificate ahead of the event.

This is the first of its kind 3.7 km race being organised by the state government.

The first bench comprising Acting Chief Justice D Krishnakumar and Justice P B Balaji passed the interim orders allowing the Formula 4 car race to be held without disrupting the traffic.

It directed the state government to provide the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) certificate by noon on the day the race is to be held and also furnish a copy to the petitioner, A N S Prasad, a BJP spokesperson.

Advocate General P S Raman and senior counsel P R Raman appearing for the state and the Racing Promotions Private Limited (RPPL), respectively, assured the court that the race would not be conducted without obtaining the FIA Homologation certificate. The court was informed that the FIA license would be issued only a day or a few hours before the circuit race.

Senior advocate V Raghavachari appeared on behalf of Prasad, who contended that the race would affect the public as it would be conducted in the street circuit format, which would require the closure of multiple public streets.

The closure of roads would cause undue hardship to the public and the move to temporarily close the roads for conducting the race was in derogation of the provisions of the Chennai City Municipality Corporation Act, 1919, Prasad claimed. Hence, the race should be prevented as it was not in the public interest, he said.