The Madras High Court Bench here was flooded with requests on Wednesday to prevent the construction of Anna University’s regional office buildings here on 83.71 acres of land classified as ‘Kanmoi Poromboke’ in revenue records.
Lawyers K. Lakshmanan, W. Peter Ramesh Kumar and A. Velan, appearing in three different cases relating to protection of waterbodies, requested Justices R. Sudhakar and V.M. Velumani to stay the proposed construction on S. Kodikulam kanmoi (tank).
They pointed out that on one hand the State government had enacted the Tamil Nadu Protection of Tanks and Eviction of Encroachments Act, 2007, and on the other granted permission for construction of buildings on a waterbody that required to be protected for the progeny.
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However, a government counsel pointed out that a Government Order for constructing the building was issued by the Revenue Department way back in August 2010 and that all procedures related to reclassification of the land were followed before granting the permission.
Pointing out that the court could not stay the construction on the basis of newspaper reports submitted by the petitioners, Mr.Justice Sudhakar said the court could interfere in the matter only if a writ petition was filed challenging the G.O.