Chennai, Jan 3 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu government today informed the Madras High court that the statue of late actor Sivaji Ganesan on the Marina Beach road would be shifted and relocated at his memorial before May 18. When the contempt petition came up for hearing before the First Bench comprising Chief Justice S K Kaul and Justice Mahadevan, the government said work on the memorial was on and the statue would be relocated by May 18 once the works were completed. The bronze statue of the late actor was erected at the junction of Dr Radhakrishnan Salai and Kamaraj Salai in 2006. A PIL filed by one P N Srinivasan sought the removal of the statue. The court had earlier ordered the statue to be removed from the spot. However, since no action was taken by the Highways Department, a contempt of court petition was filed against the department secretary. In response to the petition, the government had said that the statue would be removed after the completion of the Manimandapam, to be built on a 65-cent land allotted on the banks of the Adyar river, as announced by former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. The State appealed against this in the Supreme Court and said the Manimandapam will be completed by September 2017 and the statue will be removed after that. The Supreme Court agreed to this and asked the state government to convey this to the High Court. When the case came up for hearing today, the government submitted that the statue would be removed before May 18 following which the petition was treated as closed. UNI GV CS 1558