Sending a strong message across that it shall never allow diversion of wetlands for infrastructure projects and make Chennai city suffer once again due to flooding during the rainy season, the Madras High Court on Friday set aside the allotment of eight acres of Kazhuveli (backwaters) land to Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).
The first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy quashed a Government Order (G.O.) issued on May 16, 2014 transferring 3.23.80 hectares of Kazhuveli land at Karapakkam village in Sholingamallur Taluk for the construction of a campus for ISI, an institute of national importance.
Though ISI told the court that it had already spent ₹5 crore for filling the site with rubbish and another ₹8 crore for constructing a compound wall around it, the judges directed the State government officials to restore the low-lying land to its original state by removing all the debris that had been used for raising its height.
Thereafter, the entire extent of the backwater land must be duly maintained by ensuring its original use of acting as a body where the excess water from Pallikaranai marsh could be drained in, stored and drained out into the Buckingham Canal. No encroachment or alienation, whatsoever, should be permitted, the Bench ordered.
It granted liberty to ISI to seek allotment of an alternative site for its campus and left it open to the State government to consider such a request in accordance with law and its policy. The orders were passed while allowing a 2020 public interest litigation petition filed by I.H. Sekar of The Nature Trust.
The judges agreed with the petitioner’s counsel V.B.R. Menon that the backwaters land originally classified as Kazhuveli in the revenue records had been re-classified as Punjai Tharisu Poromboke (Government cultivable wasteland) and then alienated for purposes which would completely destroy the nature of the land.
“The land was never cultivable and therefore it cannot be, in any way, termed as Punjai. It is nothing but the evil design of the revenue authorities to exploit the pristine ecosystem and environment. Such an unconscionable and shockingly erroneous re-classification will not change the nature of the land,” the Bench wrote.
Authoring the verdict, Justice Chakravarthy expressed deep anguish over the government continuing to indulge in indiscrimiante alienation of waterbodies and wetlands despite repeated orders passed by the Supreme Court as well as the High Court to protect the water sources and channels from obliteration.
“Nature had very recently shown its fury in the month of December 2023 highlighting the absurdity of such actions,” the judge said and highlighted how Chennai city remains to be a place of contradictions which suffers from hot and humid conditions most of the time despite having innumerable wetlands.
“The city of Chennai and its adjoining districts repeatedly face flood threats and millions of houses and properties submerge under the water... Ironically, the same city and its adjoining districts suffer from acute water shortage too necessitating drawal of water from Krishna and Cauvery Rivers,” he pointed out.
In the present case, ISI, being a public institution funded by the Centre, ought not to have filled up the low-lying Kazhuveli land with debris and planned to construct its Chennai campus by destroying a wetland, the judges added.
