MADURAI: A vacation bench of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court dismissed a PIL filed seeking a direction against the collection of fee at Old Courtallam Falls in Tenkasi.
The litigant S Subash, a resident of Tenkasi, stated in his petition that the forest department issued a notification in a Tamil daily on May 6 that a bathing fee of Rs 20 per person would be collected in Old Courtallam Falls. Except for the parking fee, neither the district authorities nor any other entities have ever collected such a fee in any waterfalls in Tirunelveli and Tenkasi districts, he claimed.
Stating that no additional facilities like safety and sanitation measures, changing rooms, or public amenities have been provided to justify the above charges, he alleged that the proposed fee collection was illegal and irrational and requested the court to prevent the authorities from levying such charges.
When the case was heard on Wednesday, the additional government pleader clarified that the fee levied was not for bathing but for the entry of visitors. The collection was also not illegal and was authorised by a GO passed on February 8, 2018, he added. He further told the court that a similar petition was already dismissed by the court by permitting the authorities to collect the fee.
Hearing both sides, a bench of justices D Bharatha Chakravarthy and R Poornima dismissed the petition by granting liberty to the petitioner to challenge the aforesaid GO.