1 Petitioner, who is a Trustee of Arulmigu Karpaga Vianyagar Temple, Tanjore Town, has filed this writ petition praying to quash the order of the first respondent dated 20.12.2007 and to direct the respondents 1 to 3 to evict the encroachments in T.S. No. 1519 in Pudhupattinam Village situated at Vanakkara Street, Maharnombu Chavadi, Tanjore Town, within a time frame.

2 The brief facts necessary for disposal of this writ petition are as follows:

(a) The petitioner is a worshipper of Arulmigu Karpaga Vinayagar Temple and as such he is interested in the temple administration. He is spending amounts for the performance of Poojas in temple and he is an interested person in terms of Section 6(15) of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959.

(b) According to the petitioner, an extent of 27 cents of land comprised in T.S. No. 1519 in Pudhupattinam Village situated at Vanakkara Street, Maharnombu Chavadi, Tanjore Town was classified as temple poromboke during settlement operations when the village was taken over under the Act 26 of 1948 (Tamil Nadu Estates Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari Act). The temple was managed by one Singaram Pillai for a long time and after his demise, his son, grandson and family members, including the petitioner are managing the temple.

(c) Petitioner states that one Veerapillai of Vanakkara street was a bus driver and his brother Sethuram was Deputy Tahsildar served in Tanjore Taluk. They are the joint owners of the tiled house comprised in T.S. No. 1520. They committed encroachment of an extent of 1250 sq.ft., from the possession of the temple and put up toilet and shed for their convenience.

(d) The occupation of the temple land by the said persons having caused inconvenience to the worshippers, the worshippers as well as residents raised objections against their occupation and steps were taken to evict the encroachers from the said temple land. The Revenue Divisional Officer inspected the site and ordered the Tahsildar to initiate encroachment proceedings. The Tahsildar, Tanjore, passed an eviction order on 7.12.1973 by stating certain grounds. The said Veerapillai preferred appeal before the Revenue Divisional Officer, Tanjore, which was dismissed on 25.11.1975. Again a revision was filed before the District Revenue Officer, Tanjore, who erroneously passed an order giving direction to lease out the property encroached by the said Veerapillai and directed to fix the rent, subject to condition that the encroacher should not extend his occupation in future. The said order of the District Revenue Officer was challenged before the Revenue Board and the Revenue Board allowed the revision and set aside the order of the District Revenue Officer by order dated 25.4.1976.

(e) It is further stated in the affidavit that the said Veerapillai thereafter filed a suit in O.S. No. 140 of 1983 before the District Munsif Court, Tiruvaiyaru, impleading the State as well as the District Collector, Tanjore and contended that he has prescribed title and adverse possession and also prayed for injunction for evicting him. The learned District Munsif dismissed the said suit by judgment dated 16.12.1983. The said judgment and decree was challenged by him in A.S. No. 15 of 1984 before the Sub Court, Tanjore and the said appeal was also dismissed on 9.9.1986. Not satisfied with the order in first appeal, he preferred S.A. No. 337 of 1987 before this Court and this Court rejected all the contentions and dismissed the second appeal on 1.9.1999 and upheld the right of the Government in evicting him under the Land Encroachment Act, 1905. However, the District Collector, Tanjore, failed to initiate action to evict the encroachers in spite of the request made by the petitioner to the Revenue Officials, including the Collector.

(f) The petitioner therefore filed W.P. No. 4011 of 2004 and prayed for issuing writ of mandamus and in the said writ petition this Court by order dated 4.10.2004 directed the Distric