CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has lifted an interim stay on a G.O. entrusting solid waste management to 147 Category-II urban local bodies across Tamil Nadu.
The first division bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan passed the order while allowing a writ appeal filed by the municipal administration department against a single judge’s October 30, 2026, stay order.
“In the larger public interest and to ensure the seamless continuation of public conservancy services, the court deems it fit and proper to set aside the interlocutory order dated October 30,” the bench said in a recent order.
“When private commercial expectations are pitted against overwhelming public interest, public interest must decisively prevail. In the instant case, the balance of convenience lay overwhelmingly in favour of the state, as the interim stay risked plunging 147 municipal jurisdictions into catastrophic epidemiological and public health hazards,” the bench stated.
Citing certain Supreme Court judgments, the bench said it is a well-settled principle of law that courts must exercise extreme circumspection, and refrain from issuing mechanical interim stays that halt essential public works, infrastructural frameworks, or public utilities.
The single judge had granted the interim stay based on a writ petition filed by the Waste Management Operators Association of South India whose members are engaged in conservancy works across the state.
Their main ground is that the October 9, 2026, G.O. restructuring operations to entrust the solid waste management to these urban local bodies would render thousands of conservancy workers jobless.
During arguments on the appeal, Advocate General Vijay Narayan, representing the state, submitted that the impugned G.O. was promulgated to ensure strict and scrupulous compliance with the statutory mandates of Solid Waste Management Rules framed under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
He said the interim order is ex-facie unsustainable as it overlooked the parameters governing judicial review of executive policy decisions.
Setting aside the interim stay order, the bench instructed the single judge to expedite the hearing of the writ petition.