The Madurai bench of the Chennai High Court directed the state Government on 27 February 2017 to pass a special law to uproot the harmful seemai Karuvelam trees. The directive was given by a bench consisting of Justices. A Selvam and P.Kalaiarasan, who observed that only 15% of the trees had been removed up until now. The Judgement followed a PIL filed by MDMK leader Vaiko.