MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Friday sought a counter affidavit from the state government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking a direction to open the newly-constructed Tenkasi collectorate for public use.
The litigant Rama Udayasuriyan of Tenkasi stated in his petition that construction of the collectorate, worth Rs 119 crore, began in 2021 and 90% of the works have been completed.
But following a petition filed by SP Muthuraman in 2022 that the construction was undertaken without obtaining environmental clearance (EC), the court, on August 26, 2022, had ordered the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to dispose of the Public Works Department (PWD) application seeking EC expeditiously. But TNPCB failed to do so, and the building remains abandoned, Udayasuriyan added.
He further said that, as per an RTI reply obtained by him from the Tamil Nadu State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), the TN State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) had constituted a subcommittee for site inspection to assess the ecological damage caused by the construction work.
The subcommittee found that the building violation was only procedural and the damage could be considered as low-level ecological damage assessed to be worth around Rs 59.5 lakh, he added, and said that though the SEIAA conducted a series of meetings, it did not take any decision regarding the grant of EC. Stating that the delay is causing further financial liability to the state, he sought the court's intervention.
A bench of justices Anita Sumanth and C Kumarappan issued notices to authorities and adjourned the case to December 17.