The Madras High Court Bench here has criticised Kanniyakumari Collector for permitting stone quarry on 1.69 hectares of land situated at a distance of 153.81 metres from a high school and justifying his decision before the court on the ground that the mandatory distance of 300 metres must be maintained only from a residential house and not a school.
Allowing two public interest litigation petitions, one filed by St. Michael High School at Rajavur in Agastheeswaram Taluk and another by the president of its Parent Teacher Association Y. Beula Rose, a Division Bench of Justices S. Nagamuthu and J. Nisha Banu quashed an order passed by the Collector on July 3 granting lease for a stone quarry for a period of five years.
The petitioners had challenged the Collector’s order on the ground that Rule 36(1)(A) of the Tamil Nadu Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1959 does not permit a stone quarry within a distance of 300 metres from an ‘inhabited site’ and hence the quarry should not be permitted considering the danger to the lives and safety of the children studying in the school.
However, in his counter affidavit, the Collector stated that the expression ‘inhabited site,’ does not include any building other than a house site and that a school would not fall under the definition of the term used in the Minor Mineral Concession Rules. He also contended that it was enough for a quarry to maintain a minimum distance of 50 metres from the school.
Disagreeing with his contentions, the Bench said: “It is really not only surprising but also shocking to hear from the learned Special Government Pleader and the learned counsel for the fifth respondent (quarry lessee) as well as to know from the counter, the stand of the District Collector... that the school in question is not an ‘inhabited site’ but a public building.
“The fallacy of this argument is quite obvious from the very fact that the sub rule (1) of Rule 36 serves a vital purpose to ensure the safety of the people who have habitations in that locality. When the distance between a house which would accommodate a few persons and the quarry site should be 300 meters or more, it is not understandable as to how it could be contented that a school which has got 380 students could be located within a distance of 300 meters and above 50 meters.”
The judges also said that it was not as though the school had come into being in the recent past. “It is an undisputed fact that the school has been in existence for several decades. In fact, upto eighth standard, the school is aided by the Government... ,” they added.
In a stinging observation, the Division Bench also said: “The narration of the above facts would give a clear indication that all was not well with the authorities. We are pained to make this kind of observation.”
