Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Kopperundevi vs The District Collector on 13 December, 2022
Bench: Hrishikesh Roy, Dipankar Datta
1
ITEM NO.23 IN COURT NO.7 SECTION XII
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (C) No(s). 16298/2022
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 06-09-2022
in WP No. 23977/2022 passed by the High Court Of Judicature At
Madras)
KOPPERUNDEVI Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
THE DISTRICT COLLECTOR & ORS. Respondent(s)
(FOR ADMISSION and I.R. and IA No.136614/2022-EXEMPTION FROM FILING
C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT )
Date : 13-12-2022 This petition was called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HRISHIKESH ROY
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE DIPANKAR DATTA
For Petitioner(s) Dr. Nanda Kishore, AOR
For Respondent(s) Mr. Jaideep Gupta, Sr. Adv.
Mr. D.kumanan, AOR
Mr. Sheikh Fakhruddin Kalia, Adv.
Ms. Rachheta Chawla, Adv.
Ms. Divya Singh, Adv.
Ms. Mancka S Priya, Adv.
Mr. Riddhi Bose, Adv.
Ms. Bano Deswal, Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
Heard Mr. Jaideep Gupta, learned senior Signature Not Verified counsel appearing for the respondents.
Digitally signed byMr. K. Balasubramaniam, District Collector, Neetu Khajuria Date: 2022.12.14 17:08:15 IST Reason:
Cuddalore District, is also personally present.
The learned senior counsel has referred to 2 the affidavit dated 10.12.2022 filed by respondent No.1, pursuant to this Court’s order dated 28.11.2022 and submits that although there has been some delay in removing the encroachment in terms of the orders passed by the High Court, eventually, all encroachments have been cleared. Specific reference is made to the averments in paragraph 3, 4, 5 and 6 and those being relevant are extracted herein below:-
“3. It is most respectfully stated that and submitted that all the orders of this Hon’ble Court have been carried out in their entirety. The subject matter of the SLP (Civil) No.16298 of 2022 the Deivam Hospital was removed by 07.11.2022 and all encroachments in Mulla lake and the encroachments in water channels Odai and Thangal in Vridhachalam have been completely removed by 25.11.2022. It is therefore most respectfully submitted that the orders passed by the Hon'ble High Court in Writ Petition (C) No.23977 of 2022, on 06.09.2022 has been carried out in full.
4. The eviction of encroachments in the water bodies commenced on 29.08.2022 with the surveying of the water bodies. There were in total 94 Residential Buildings and 84 Commercial Buildings which were found to have encroached in the said water bodies.
In compliance with the orders of the Hon'ble Court the encroachments in water channels in Mulla Eri, Odai and Thangal (i.e.) total of 178 buildings/ encroachments (94 Residential and 84 Commercial) have now been removed completely and compliance report has been submitted on 25.11.2022.
3Particulars of the encroachments that have been removed are set out in a schedule annexed hereto and marked as ANNEXURE-1.
5. It is most respectfully submitted that in some places, the authorities faced resistance from the residents and other local persons which were duly dealt with, in some places, technicalissues were also faced at the time of carrying out demolition which were duly addressed by the engineers concerned. Some of the encroachers has also preferred various Writ Petitions before the Hon'ble High Court at Chennai which have been dismissed or disposed off by the Hon'ble High Court at Chennai. Particulars of the said proceedings are set out in a table annexed hereto and marked as ANNEXURE-2.
6. With the greatest of regret, it is submitted that there was some miscommunication in my office, that is the office of the District Collector, as a result of which there was a delay in filing the compliance report before this Hon'ble Court. I tender my unqualified apology for the same. I state that steps have been taken to ensure that such miscommunication does not happen in future and that orders of this Hon'ble Court and the other superior courts are brought directly to the attention of the District Collector as soon as they are issued for their compliance.” Having noted the above as also the fact that the encroachment by the Deivam Hospital and other residential and commercial encroachments have been removed from the water bodies, we deem it appropriate to close these proceedings. The 4 unconditional apology tendered by the District Collector is also accepted but, we need to observe that requisite steps should be taken in the District Collector’s office to ensure effective communication for compliance of the orders within the time-frame fixed by the Courts. Steps towards this end should be taken by the concerned Officer.
The proceedings are closed and further presence of the District Collector is dispensed with.
With the above order, the special leave petition and pending applications stand disposed of.
(NEETU KHAJURIA) (MONIKA DEY) ASTT. REGISTRAR-cum-PS COURT MASTER