Defendant-Panruti Municipality is the appellant herein. The subject-matter of the suit

O.S. No.2846 of 1979, on the file of the District Munsif’s Court, Cuddalore, is a public market place.

2. With an intention to prevent unauthorised occupation of shops and unauthorised hawking, the defendant- Municipality put up a platform having a height of 2 feet, to a length of 8 1/2 feet. The said platform caused obstruction for easy access to the plaintiff who is having shops on the roadside. Hence the present suit was filed for a mandatory injunction, directing the Municipality to demolish the platform constructed by it.

3. The defence taken by the Municipality was that, being a public land, it has got absolute right to construct a platform. It also put forward a contention that the intention of putting up such platform was to avoid unauthorised hawking. It also said that the plaintiff has got free access to their shops. According to the defendant, it was justified in constructing the platform.

4. During trial, a Commissioner was deputed to verify the nature of the platform and submit a report as to how far it has caused obstruction, if any, to the plaintiff’s user. Accordingl