SC vacates stay against committees constituted to oversee government action against unauthorised constructions in the Nilgiris, Kodaikanal

SC vacates stay on HC-constituted committees to oversee govt action against unauthorised constructions in Nilgiris, Kodaikanal. Activist lawyer filed writ petitions in HC in 2007 alleging large-scale illegal constructions. HC ordered disconnection of electricity & water, but building owners got relief from SC. HC then appointed two committees in 2015 to oversee govt action. SC leaves it to HC to decide if reports from committees necessary to decide writ petitions.

After eight years, the Supreme Court has vacated an interim stay granted by it to the functioning of two committees constituted by the Madras High Court in August 2015 to oversee government action against unauthorised constructions all over the Nilgiris district and the Kodaikanal hills in Dindigul district.

A two-judge Bench of Justices A.S. Bopanna and P.S. Narasimha of the apex court has disposed of an appeal filed by the State government in 2015 against the constitution of the two committees, to be chaired by Justices K. Chandru and K. Sampath, and permitted the High Court to take a call on the need for such committees.

“At this stage we are of the opinion that in a matter where the High Court, at that stage, through the impugned (under challenge) order had only constituted a committee to examine the issue and due to the time lapse it is not necessary to go into the correctness or otherwise of the same since the writ petitions are still pending before the High court,” the Bench wrote.

The Supreme Court left it to the High Court to decide whether the reports from the two committees would be necessary to decide the writ petitions or whether they could be decided even otherwise on the basis of material available on record. “We are allowing the High Court to examine all aspects of the matter and take a decision,” the judges said.

Activist lawyer ‘Elephant’ G. Rajendran had filed the two writ petitions in the High Court in 2007 alleging large scale illegal constructions in Udhagamandalam, Gudalur, Kothagiri and Coonoor Taluks in the Nilgiris district. In 2010, the High Court ordered disconnection of electricity and water but the building owners approached the Supreme Court and obtained relief.

Thereafter, when the writ petitions were heard in 2014 by the then Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul (now a Supreme Court judge) and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam (now Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court), the judges noticed that the unauthorised constructions continued unabated in the hill station even during that period of time.

They also found that hundreds of review and rectification petitions filed by the building owners were pending before the State government. Hence, they decided to issue a continous mandamus in the matter and appointed two committees, headed by retired High Court judges, in 2015 to oversee the government action.