Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the state government to issue the necessary circular incorporating the various directions issued by the courts relating to removal of encroachments and illegal constructions and file a copy of the same before it on February 4, 2019.
A division bench comprising Justices M. Venugopal and S. Vaidyanathan said till such circular was issued; the directions given by the courts relating to removal of encroachments should be followed in letter and spirit.
The bench said, “It is apposite to state that due to paucity of water, we may have to face severe scarcity of water this year and disconnection of electricity and non-supply of water to the violators would enable non-violators to have such supplies round the clock.”
The bench dismissed a batch of seven petitions from N. Ravikumar and others and posted the matter to February 4 for reporting compliance.
The bench said unless there was a stay of the proceedings by the HC, quoting any pendency of the matter, the officials of the municipality, corporation, CMDA and government officials could not close the complaints or appeals etc., on the ground of pendency of writ petition or writ appeal. If they did so, it would amount to dereliction of duty and they could be proceeded with departmentally to bri-
-ng them within the ambit of not discharging their duties with integrity and also it may attract moral turpitude, depriving them of their gratuity and other benefits.
The bench said it was of the view that if any records or statements made by the staff, who were dealing with the encroachments were found false, it would amount to not only dereliction of duty but also attract moral turpitude. The authorities were expected to issue suitable directions to the authorities concerned to go ahead with the matter, the bench added.
