Chennai: Madras High Court judge Justice S.M. Subramaniam has declined to withdraw from hearing a Tamil Nadu government appeal against the Madras Race Club (MRC), despite objections that he had earlier passed adverse orders against the club and had represented cases against it during his tenure as a lawyer.

Presiding over a Division Bench alongside Justice Mohammed Shaffiq, Justice Subramaniam said, “A judge may recuse, on his own, from a case entrusted to him by the Chief Justice. That would be a matter of his own choosing. But recusal at the asking of a litigating party, unless justified, must never be acceded to.”

The Tamil Nadu government had moved the appeal challenging an interim status quo order passed by Justice K. Kumaresh Babu on July 4, 2025.

The earlier order had restrained

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