The Madras High Court Bench here has dismissed a public interest litigation petition challenging a district gazette notification issued by Madurai Collector on August 1 permitting a stone quarry on 175.45 hectares of public waste land at Mettupatti panchayat in Vadipatti taluk near here.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidaran also vacated an interim order, passed by another Division Bench on August 18 prohibiting commencement of quarry operations at the site, since the forest department turned a volte face and said it had no objection to the stone quarry.
Another Division Bench of Justices Nooty Ramamohana Rao and S.S. Sundar had granted the interim order after the petitioner S. Chinnazhagan claimed that the Revenue Divisional Officer as well as the District Forest Officer had opposed quarrying at the site since it might affect the environment in the vicinity.
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However, in a recent report filed before the Division Bench led by Mr. Justice Nagamuthu, the District Forest Officer said that he had no objection to lease out the public land for stone quarry since the vegetation grown near it was raised only under Tamil Nadu Afforestation Project and it was not a natural or spontaneous growth protected under Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
After recording the submission, the judges said: “The petitioner cannot poke his nose into the leasing of government land for quarry. It is for the government and not the petitioner herein to decide to lease any unassessed waste land or not and not.”