The Madras High Court Bench here has vacated the stay imposed on constructing a residential quarters for police personnel at Mangalam in Sivakasi taluk of Virudhunagar district and disposed of a writ petition filed against the proposed construction on the ground that it was being built close to a waterbody.
Disposing of the case filed by M. Mariappan, a local resident, a Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and V.M. Velumani pointed out that the land, on which the residential quarters was to be built, had been reclassified as ‘police department poromboke’ way back on June 14, 1973 and hence it could not be construed as a waterbody.
Further, recording the submission of a government counsel that work order for construction of the quarters at a cost of Rs. 1.57 crore was issued on September 7, 2015 and Rs. 11.34 lakh had already been spent, the judges said: “This court is of the view that public interest should prevail over private interest.”
However, it also recorded an undertaking given by the State that the nature of the available waterbody land would not get affected in any way due to the construction of the quarters and that the welfare of the local residents and agriculturalists should be well protected.
