MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently clarified that there should not be any selective targeting of private buildings, while removing encroachments on waterbodies in the state.
“If it is a waterbody, then no building or construction, including government buildings, can come up,” a bench comprising Justices GR Swaminathan and B Pugalendhi said.
The special bench, formed exclusively for hearing waterbody-related cases, made the observation while hearing a petition filed by one Palaniyandi from Pudukkottai, seeking to quash a notice issued to him by the department of water resources to vacate his house which was situated on a land classified as a waterbody.
The judges noted that Palayandi failed to submit any material to prove his claim on the land. Agreeing with the contention of Palaniyandi’s counsel that government buildings have also been put up in the same land, the judges clarified that no building or construction, be it government or private, can come up on a waterbody. There should not be any selective targeting of private buildings alone, they added, and dismissed the petition.
However, considering that the encroachment made by Palaniyandi is a dwelling house, they gave him four months breathing time to make alternative arrangements.