MADURAI: Invoking ‘parens patriae’ jurisdiction, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently declared ‘Mother Nature’ to be a ‘living being’ having the status of a legal entity and directed the Central and State governments to take steps to protect it.
Justice S Srimathy said so while disposing of a petition filed by former revenue official, A Periyakaruppan, requesting the court to modify his punishment for granting patta for forest land in Megamalai village.
But as the said pattas were cancelled later, she modified his punishment from ‘compulsory retirement’ to ‘stoppage of increment for six months without cumulative effect’. “This punishment is imposed for the act done against Mother Nature,” she said.
Justice Srimathy said that under the guise of sustainable development, human beings should not destroy nature. “If sustainable development finishes off all our biodiversity and resources, then it is not sustainable development, it is sustainable destruction. The phrases like ‘sustainable development’, ‘the polluter pays’, ‘the precautionary principle’ shall not be allowed anymore,” she said.
She also referred to a judgment passed by the Uttaranchal High Court in 2017 wherein the high court, by invoking parens patriae jurisdiction, declared the glaciers as legal entities, with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person, in order to preserve and conserve them.
Non-bailable warrant against I-T officials
Chennai: The Madras High Court ordered non-bailable warrants against two Income Tax officers for wilful disobedience of the court’s orders and for failing to appear before the court. A division bench recently passed the orders for issuing non-bailable warrants against BL Meena, Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, and B Lapila, an administrative officer, on a contempt of court petition by V Sampangi Ramaiah of Krishnagiri district. Police were told to produce them in court on June 6.