MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently imposed Rs 50,000 cost on an association which sought the removal of encroachments on temple and government lands near Thirumangalam taluk in Madurai district. The court observed that the association was filing multiple Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitions for the same issue, probably with an ulterior motive.
The Abdulkalam Science Farm People Security Association, represented by its president G Abel Moorthy, had filed the PIL seeking removal of encroachments in several survey numbers, which according to him were government poramboke and temple lands, but have become approved plots belonging to a Tiruchy-based real estate company.
During the hearing, it was revealed that the association had already filed a similar PIL and the same was pending without any interim orders. Despite this, the association moved another PIL before the special bench dealing with waterbody-related cases, by claiming that the said survey numbers were waterbodies. The special bench dismissed the PIL after finding that the said lands were not waterbodies. Subsequently, the association moved the present PIL claiming that it has excluded some of the lands mentioned in the pending PIL, which are classified as waterbodies.
Hearing the third PIL, a bench comprising Justices MS Ramesh and AD Maria Clete criticised the association for repeatedly approaching the court for the same issue. "The petitioner association is not attempting to espouse the cause of the public but rather appears to have an ulterior motive in repeatedly filing these kinds of writ petitions," they observed. Noting that the lands in question were private patta lands, the judges imposed Rs 50,000 cost on the association, directing it to pay the amount to Periyakulam Siddha Medical Office.