Expressing shock over the fact that a private person in Karur district had been permitted to lay pipelines to extract water from a well in a land close to Amaravathi river, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court observed that the entire Karur district administration had acted in the interest of one person.
A Division Bench of Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and S. Ananthi quashed the order passed by the then Collector S. Malarvizhi who permitted laying of the pipelines. Directing removal of the pipelines, the court said the entire cost to be spent towards removing them should be recovered from the private person, S. Shanthi.
The judges wondered how the Collector had granted permission to extract water from the river and lay pipelines along road margins. Earlier, the permission was denied to the private person by the Tahsildar concerned. The predecessor to Ms. Malarvizhi, T. Anbalagan, had also rejected the application of S. Shanthi, who is said to be an influential person.
After Ms. Malarvizhi took charge as Collector, Shanthi filed an appeal petition to her seeking permission to draw water from the river. Fifteen government officials formed a panel to conduct an inspection and subsequently permission was granted. The court wondered whether the Collector had the jurisdiction to pass the order.
The court said the exercise of such power was illegal and perverse. The Collector was expected to protect natural resources and it was unbecoming of a public servant to pass such an order. The court said it was shocked by the constitution of the committee.
The court took note of the fact that the local villagers had objected to drawing of water from the river. The Collector should have considered the plea of the villagers. Instead, she acted in haste. The villagers were complaining about lack of water for agricultural purposes and the district administration catered to the needs of the private party, the judges observed.
The court was hearing the public interest litigation petition filed by Village Drinking Water and Health Society of Aravakurichi in Karur district, which sought a direction to restrain the private person from laying the pipelines.
