The bench of chief justice MN Bhandari and N Mala issued the warning as authorities concerned had not complied with a set of directions issued by it to the state government on January 27 to prevent unauthorised occupation of lands classified as water bodies in revenue records.
Press Trust of IndiaChennai
The chief secretary of the Tamil Nadu government will be summoned, if the earlier court orders on removal of encroachments on water bodies are not complied with fully in 10 days, the first bench of the Madras high court warned on Monday.
The bench of chief justice MN Bhandari and N Mala issued the warning as authorities concerned had not complied with a set of directions issued by it to the state government on January 27 to prevent unauthorised occupation of lands classified as water bodies in revenue records.
The court warned that it would be constrained to summon the chief secretary if its orders were not implemented in letter and spirit within the next 10 days.
Annoyed over the filing of many PIL petitions against encroachments on water bodies, the CJ, then accompanied by Justice P D Audikesavalu. had ordered among other things, demarcation of boundaries of all water bodies in the State in accordance with the details available in Tamil Nilam website and ordered removal of all encroachments by issuing notices either under the Tamil Nadu Protection of Tanks and Eviction of Encroachment Act of 2007 or the Tamil Nadu Land Encroachment Act of 1905.
It also directed the government to preserve those water bodies by desilting them at regular intervals, create public awareness about the need to preserve them and arrange cleanliness drive for the surroundings with local participation and prevent unauthorised occupation by fencing as well as installation of closed circuit television cameras for surveillance or by appointing security guards wherever possible.
The court had directed no registering authority should register any document in respect of any land notified as water body.
When the matter came up today, the bench noticed that this order has not been fully complied with. It also imposed a cost of ₹25,000 on one of the government officials for having failed to remove encroachments in another case and warned with the same treatment to other officials too, who failed to perform their duty.
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