Sundar.P. v. The State Of Tamilnadu

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS

DATED: 27.02.2023

CORAM

THE HON'BLE MR.T.RAJA, ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE AND THE HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE D.BHARATHA CHAKRAVARTHY Writ Petition No.33981 of 2017

1. Sundar.P

2. Karthikeyan

3. D.Kala

4. R.Sugumar

5. M.Veeran

6. Luyis Mariyageorge

7. Doss Anthony

8. Babu

9. Gowri Manmadhan

10. B.Jayaram

11. Jothi M

12. M.Anbarasu

13. Murugan Veeragavan

14. D.Palanikumar

15. Anbu Thulukanam

16. Sasikumar

17. Raguram

18. Amaravathi

19. Baby

20. Mangalakshmi Lakshmipathi

21. Rajam K

22. M.Vijaya

23. Selvakumari R

24. Annammal Durai

25. Mallika K

26. B.Anuradha

27. Babu

28. D.Kala

29. Lakshmi A

30. Sampath

31. Suresh Kubendiran

32. Punniyakotti E

33. Murali Punniyakotti

34. Uthami Sundaram

35. N.Ramani

36. Kumar K

37. Amudha

38. Prabhakaran Venugopal

39. Saline Kuppusamy

40. Malathy Kalyanasundaram

41. D.Mangalakshmi

42. Sharmila

43. D.Arumugam

44. Palayam Santhanam

45. Thirusanku Chinnaiyan

46. Loganathan

47. Radhakrishnan L

48. Ganesh Munuswamy

49. Shakila Palayam

50. Siva Michael

51. Murugan Nagappan

52. Raja Vedhamanickam

53. Rubanathan

54. Sundaram.N

55. Annamalai Naliyappan

56. Kanthimathi Sokkalingam

57. Anandan Kannan

58. Suresh Veeragavan

59. Ramki

60. Selvi

61. Vijaya S

62. Selvamani

63. Anandham.S

64. Shankar

65. Narayanasamy Devan

66. Murugan Subramani

67. Elangovan

68. Jayaram B

69. Nesaraj

70. M.Veeran

71. Appavu Subramani

72. Kuttyappan.S

73. Badma

74. B.Kalyanai

75. Kanniyammal

76. Amirtham.P

77. Saravanan

78. Vembu Ammasi

79. Rajeswari Manokaran

80. Manikandan

81. Ravichandran

82. Anjalai.S

83. Karunakaran.V

84. V.Janaki

85. Malliga

86. Mageshkumar Venu

87. Ashokkumar Venu

88. Sathiyaseelan Venu

89. Ganapathy.S

90. Veenus Baby V

91. Sumathi Thenarasu

92. Lakshmi

93. Radhakrishnan

94. Janagiraman Valmurthy

95. Mari

96. Elizabeth Yuvanjalin Ashokkumar

97. Surya Arumugam

98. Sivakumar Arumugam

99. Selvaraj Narasimman

100. Kanniyammal Venugopal

101. Suriya Babu R

102. Durai Sanmugam

103. Rajesh Durai

104. Annammal Durai

105. Elangovan

106. Sam Perumal

107. Stalin Perumal

108. Prameela Perumal

109. D.Rajakumar

110. Rajendran.P

111. Mani Santhanam

112. Siva.S

113. Devi.R

114. Thuruvavukarasu

115. Rajenthiran

116. R.Kalaivanan

117. Manonmani Dhayalan

118. P.Doss

119. Marimuthu.S

120. Banumathi Arumugam

121. Arayyamma.V

122. Vincent Vadhaclam

123. Dharani Kumar.S

124. Amaravathy Raja

125. Vimal Paramasivam

126. Ashok Paramasivam

127. Kuppyswamy Muthu

128. Kumar Sundaram

129. S.Saraswathy

130. Venugopal Ponnusamy

131. Vengaiya

132. Kuppan

133. Jayaraman Santhanam

134. Ravi Thulakannam

135. D.Kumar

136. Jayakumar.D

137. Rajashekar

138. B.Vadivelu

139. Logidassan

140. Dilliyamal B

141. Paramasivam Vellai

142. Saratha Munnusamy

143. Thulasi S

144. Gopal M

145. Selvaraj Kuppan

146. Padma R

147. Annammal

148. Mani Eatti

149. Gubendran

150. Maran Chinnapaiyan

151. M.Anthoni

152. Duraisami T

153. Rani A

154. M.Veran

155. Kirubaimariyal

156. D.Rose

157. M.Selvi

158. Govindhasami

159. K.Arumugam

160. D.Babu Sekar ..

Petitioners Vs.

1. The State of Tamil Nadu Represented by its Principal Secretary to Government Municipal Administration & Water Supply Department Fort St. George, Chennai - 600 009.

2. The State of Tamil Nadu Represented by its Principal Secretary to Public Works Department Fort St. George, Chennai - 600 009.

3. The District Collector District Collectorate, Thiruvallur.

4. The Commissioner Thiruverkadu Municipality Thiruverkadu.

5. The Tahsildar Poonamallee.

..

Respondents [R5 suo motu impleaded vide order dated 02.04.2018] Prayer: Writ Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for a writ of Mandamus, forbearing the respondents 1 to 4 their men, agents or anybody claiming through them from in any manner attempting to evict the petitioners from the subject property in Survey No.1/1A, 1/1B and 114/1, Thiruverkadu Village pending disposal of the petitioners' representation dated 18.05.2015. For the Petitioners : Mr.M.A.Gouthaman For the Respondents : Mr.J.Ravindran Additional Advocate General Assisted by Mr.A.Selvendran Special Government Pleader for Respondents 1 to 3 Mr.R.Mohandoss for Respondent-4

ORDER

(Made by the Hon'ble Acting Chief Justice) The petitioners seek a writ of Mandamus forbearing the respondents 1 to 4 from in any manner attempting to evict them from

the subject property in Survey Nos.1/1A, 1/1B and 114/1, Thiruverkadu Village, pending disposal of their representation dated 18.05.2015.

2. The third respondent has filed a detailed counter affidavit stating that they did not intend to evict the people living in patta lands, but only the people who have encroached the Coovam River Poramboke. The relevant paragraph, namely paragraph 3, is extracted as under:

"It is submitted that the land in Survey No.1/1B and 114/1 are Grama Natham Patta lands and the proposed eviction is not intended to those people living in patta lands. The Survey No.1/1A of Thiruverkadu is a Coovam River Poramboke. The Petitioners have encroached the River Poramboke by way of Construction of houses. The Government of Tamilnadu is implementing the integrated Coovam River ECO Restoration Project under the aegis of the Chennai River Restoration Trust (CRRT) as per the orders of the Hon'ble National Green Tribunal (NGT) Southern Zone Chennai. The administration sanction for the implementation of the scheme has been sanctioned by the government vide G.O.Ms.No.9 MA & WS (MCL) Dept dated 13.01.2015. The

Main work carried out in this project is desilting and widening of River, removal of solid waste, review channel improvement, River front development works, Resettlement and Rehabilitation of project affect families on account of eviction of encroachments."

3. Taking note of the statement made in the counter affidavit that the land in Survey Nos.1/1B and 114/1 are Grama Natham patta lands and the land in Survey No.1/1A is a Coovam River Poramboke, a Division Bench of this Court, by order dated 02.04.2018, has given liberty to the respondents to remove the encroachments in accordance with law. The relevant portion of the said order reads as under: "4. In the light of the same, the order of ad-interim injunction granted by this Court dated 28/12/2017, as extended, is modified to the effect that petitioners shall not be dispossessed except in accordance with law from the site/ superstructures in question in Survey Nos.1/1A, 1/1B, 114/1, Thiruverkadu Village, till 18.06.2018. It is also made clear that till the disposal of the writ petition, the petitioners shall not create any third party rights in respect of the site/ superstructures in question and shall not alter it's physical features also."

5. In view of the above, this writ petition is disposed of directing the fifth respondent to issue notice to the petitioners within one week from the date of receipt of a copy of this order, calling upon them to submit their explanation, along with the relevant documents, as to why they should not be evicted from the land in Survey No.1/1A, which is a Coovam River Poromboke and on receipt of such explanation of the petitioners, he shall consider the same and pass a speaking order, on merits and proceed further in accordance with law. There will be no order as to costs. Consequently, WMP Nos.37700 and 37701 of 2017 are closed.

(T.R., ACJ.) (D.B.C., J.) 27.02.2023 Index : Yes/No : Yes/No kpl/drm

To

1. The Principal Secretary Government Municipal Administration & Water Supply Department Fort St. George, Chennai - 600 009.

2. The Principal Secretary The State of Tamil Nadu Public Works Department Fort St. George, Chennai - 600 009.

3. The District Collector District Collectorate, Thiruvallur.

4. The Commissioner Thiruverkadu Municipality Thiruverkadu.

5. The Tahsildar Poonamallee.

T.RAJA, ACJ, and D.BHARATHA CHAKRAVARTHY,J (kpl/drm) 27.02.2023