NEW DELHI: The Tamil Nadu government filed its objections in the Supreme Court on Monday, pertaining to the Survey of India (SOI) report on the construction of the mega car parking project near the Mullaiperiyar dam, and sought rejection of the report. The government affidavit was in response to the SOI report filed in the Supreme Court on March 5 in a sealed cover stating that the park is not constructed within the leased water area and does not affect the water reserve areas.
The original suit filed by TN relating to the removal of encroachment of leased area by the construction of a car park by the Kerala government came up for hearing on Monday before a bench led by Justice Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, who took all the submissions of TN into record and fixed the matter for further hearing to July 10. The Supreme Court gave Kerala four weeks to file its reply to the objections raised by Tamil Nadu and asked the two states to finalise the core legal issues that need to be adjudicated upon.
The Tamil Nadu state’s affidavit said the survey team ought to have involved other agencies for ascertaining the original ground level instead of arriving at a conclusion based on “presumption and surmise”.
On November 11, 2023, the top court ordered the SOI survey to ascertain whether the mega car park had been constructed on any part of the property covered by the Periyar Lake Lease Agreement of October 29, 1886. The agreement was signed between the Maharaja of Travancore and the Secretary of State for India for the Periyar Irrigation works for a period of 999 years.
In its suit filed in 2014, Tamil Nadu sought a decree of permanent injunction restraining Kerala from trespassing/encroaching upon the area leased to it under the Agreement of 1886 and affirmed by the supplemental agreements of 1970 and from taking up any further construction of the mega car park in the leased area. It also sought restoration of the land trespassed/encroached upon to its original state.
The top court had on November 11, 2023 said the Survey of India or the officers nominated by it will determine the precise area or property covered by the said lease deed and ascertain whether the construction of the mega car park has been made in the leased area.
“We direct the Survey of India or the officers nominated by it to carry out the work of demarcation and survey after giving advance notice to the officers nominated by both the States,” the bench had said. It gave the Survey of India three months to file its report directly to the apex court.