Chennai: Noticing that from the year 1990, 202 documents pertaining to marshlands in Pallikaranai were registered by the sub-registrar office in Chennai, the Madras high court on Monday directed the state government to give details about officers who registered the documents, action taken against those officers, retired and in service, and also information about executors and beneficiaries of the documents.
Justice N Kirubakaran gave the directive and posted to April 17, further hearing of the case. Originally, while granting conditional anticipatory bail to two persons, who apprehended arrest in connection with a case relating to allegedly fabricating documents on October 28, 2015, noticed that marshlands were fraudulently or by design were being encroached upon and alienated.
He then gave several directions to authorities in order to safeguard the marshlands. Chennai corporation was to give a proposal to restore the marshland to its original state, before being used as a dumpyard.
November 18 order impleaded 20 government officials and imposed a blanket ban on registering Pallikaranai marshlands anywhere in the state.
When the case was taken up for hearing on Monday, the judge directed the forest department, CMDA, Chennai corporation, registration department and metro water officials to convene a meeting within 3 weeks and give a proposal to the fencing of available marshlands so that further encroachment could be prevented. The estimate should also contain the details of the amount to be spent for that. If that proposal was given, this court would consequently direct the state government to allot the funds to safeguard the marshlands. If any patta has been issued in respect of private parties, it has to be stated as to when such pattas were issued and who were the officials who issued such pattas, the judge added.
The judge said "since 1990, 202 documents have been registered at joint SRO, Saidapet, relating to marshlands" and he sought information on the names of officials who carried out these registrations and also details of what action has been taken on them.
