Madras High Court gives authorities a rap on knuckles

The court had on February 2 pulled up the authorities for tardy progress in installing CCTV cameras in all police stations across the state. A division bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul observed, “We are now informed that only 170 police stations out of 251 have completed installation of CCTV cameras, as per the demand of the police department for the year 2013-14. We are now in February 2015. This looks like a 10-year-plan”.

Coming down heavily on authorities for allowing encroachers to occupy the ecologically sensitive Pallikaranai lake in the city, Justice N. Kirubakaran had on September2 said, “We should protect and preserve nature and environment, failing which nature’s fury would be very dangerous”.

Taking a serious view on illegal sewer connections, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had on October 10 directed the state government to ensure creation of a graded penalty mechanism where penalties vary from Rs 5,000 to a couple of lakh rupees, depending upon the nature of the buildings.

After the first spell of rains, resulting in floods in the city in November, the high court had an occasion to deal with a PIL from an office-bearer of a political party to regularise the encroachments in Kolathur lake.

Reiterating the importance of protecting the water bodies and water courses to avoid floods in future, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathayanarayana had on November 27 pulled up the authorities for permitting encroachments on water bodies and dismissed the PIL.

Writing the judgment for the Bench, Justice Pushpa Sathayanarayana, while referring to the unprecedented floods during early November, said, “The entire loss due to the flood was due to maladministration and the prevailing practices by the authorities as almost all the water bodies and water courses were allowed to be encroached upon resulting in reduction in their flood storing and carrying capacity, forcing the water to deviate from its regular and enter the residential areas causing devastating effects. The authorities have permitted construction of houses in the water bodies. This resulted in inundation of these areas during flood and all these houses submerged under the floodwater. This shows that despite the orders of the court, the authorities pretend to act swiftly in removing encroachments but only in a selective manner and not in a planned and determined manner”, she added.

She said, “The authorities in power cannot destroy the water bodies or water courses formed naturally for the benefit of mankind forever and it is beyond the power of the state to alienate or re-classify the water bodies for some other purposes without compensating the effect of such water bodies”.

But, unfortunately, within a week of this order being passed, the second spell of rains lashed Chennai, resulting in worse floods, ransacking the entire city and causing loss of lives and properties.