CHENNAI: Let the Commissioner of the Corporation of Chennai sit on a chair or stay in a shed near the garbage dumping area in Kodungaiyur for 24 hours. Unless he does so, he will not understand the difficulties faced by the local residents, the first bench of the Madras High Court has observed.
The bench of Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan made the oral observation while passing interim orders on a batch of three PILs filed from 2002 onwards on the same and similar issues.
In the PIL, one of the petitioners — Ezhil Nagar Welfare Association at Ezhil Nagar in Kodungaiyur — sought to restrain various authorities of the Corporation of Chennai from interfering with the peaceful possession and enjoyment of the members of the petitioner association in respect of their property in Ezhil Nagar in Kodungaiyur, including by putting up compound wall or any construction or dumping garbage thereon. If the Corporation authorities were not restrained, they would be put to undue hardships and difficulties, petitioner contended.
After going through a report submitted by the TN Pollution Control Board, the bench said that it is a reflection on the complete carelessness of the Corporation in complying with environmental norms.
The first petition was filed in 2002. Even a life sentence (period) of 14 years is not enough for them to do the needful and that is the period which has elapsed since the earlier petition was filed. Now an endeavour is made to hide behind 2016 rules which is impermissible, as the time period envisaged under those rules would be only for the new establishments or for new norms which have been introduced but it would not obliterate the time period required to be met qua the norms under the old rules, the bench said.
The bench then called upon the Corporation to give a chart of the list of non-compliances along with the time period within which they are to be complied with within three weeks, with advance copy to all parties and the advocate commissioner.
Before parting with the case, the bench orally observed that if the Commissioner needed a place near the dump yard, a chair or a shed can be provided to understand the difficulties faced by the residents in the area. Otherwise, he will not come to know what is the difficulty, the bench added.