Madras High Court judges to inspect illegal brick kilns in Coimbatore district

Decision taken after contradictory claims regarding compliance of the court direction to disconnect power supply to all 118 brick kilns

Furnaces of brick kilns in Thadagam Valley in Coimbatore district remain unused for nearly two years after 177 units were closed down owing to various violations in 2021. The brick kilns functioned in five village panchayats in the Valley which is located in the Palakkad Gap of the Western Ghats. Representational image | Photo Credit: PERIASAMY M

Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy of the Madras High Court on Thursday decided to visit the illegal brick kilns in Coimbatore district and find out whether power connections had been snapped to all of them as directed by the court since they received complaints regarding misuse of labourers’ domestic connections.

Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran told the judges that Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) had disconnected power supply to all 118 brick kilns and also to 47 domestic connections that were in disuse. The power supply of only the domestic connections in use by the labourers were not disturbed, he said.

On the other hand, Senior Counsel T. Mohan and advocate S.P. Chockalingam, representing two different litigants, complained to the court that the domestic connections were being misused by the brick kilns by using high voltage lamps during night hours in order to drive away the wild elephants.

“When the brick kilns had not been in operation for the last three years due to court orders what is the necessity for labourers over there?” Mr. Chockalingam asked. He also said that the National Green Tribunal had recently permitted transportation of the bricks that had already been made and stored in the kilns.

“The NGT has passed an inappropriate order, if I may say so, permitting transportation of illegally made bricks which should have otherwise been used to close the pits that had been dug by the kiln owners. The NGT’s order goes against the High Court’s interim order banning transportation,” he said.

However, senior counsel P. Wilson, representing some of the brick kilns, took strong objection to such submission and accused the petitioners of being interlopers who were trying to prejudice the mind of the court.

He said, it was the High Court which had allowed the NGT to take a call and hence the latter had permitted transportation.

Suspecting that the petitioners had approached the High Court with some ulterior motive, he claimed, their action had led to shortage of bricks in the State.

The senior counsel contended there was no identified elephant corridor in the place where the brick kilns were situated and hence the contentions regarding driving away of the pachyderms was wrong.

After hearing both sides, the judges decided to conduct a personal inspection before taking a final call on the issue.