1. Swami Vivekanda said, the Lord is the only Giver, all the Men in the World are only Shopkeepers. Get His Cheque and it must be honoured everywhere."

2. The lis on hand are filed questioning the validity of the order issued by the 1st respondent in G.O.Ms. No. 142, Public Works (R2) Department dated 23.07.2014. The order impugned is about the effective Management of Ground Water and Regulations for Management of Ground Water and issue of No Objection Certificate/Licence for Extraction of Ground Water in the State of Tamil Nadu. The categorization formulated by the Public Works Department in G.O.Ms. No. 52 dated 02.03.2012 has been approved by the Government and accordingly, the categorization of over-exploited, critical, semi-critical and safe blocks are notified. All the over-exploited and critical blocks are notified as category 'A' where Stage of Ground Water Extraction is 90% and above and all the semi-critical and safe blocks are notified as category 'B' where Stage of Ground Water Extraction is below 89%. The impugned order formulates Regulations for Management of Ground Water.

Pleadings of the Petitioner:

3. The petitioners in all these writ petitions set out their grievances by stating that they all are running business of Manufacturing Packaged Drinking Water Units. The Petitioners have obtained licenses from the Bureau of Indian Standards, Certificate of Manufacturing License and also from the Food Standards Authority of India (FSSAI License) and the said licenses were periodically renewed and the same is valid as on the date of filing of the writ petitions. The petitioners have registered their names with the Commercial Taxes Department and they are affected on account of the Government order issued in G.O.Ms. No. 142, Public Works Department dated 23.07.2014. The petitioners submit that withdrawal of Ground Water all over the Nation was the concern of the Central Government and with a view to safeguard the interest of the public in general and balancing the same by permitting the water based industries, the Central Ground Water Authority was constituted under the powers conferred on the Union in Section 3 (3) of Environment Protection Act, 1986 and the guidelines were also issued on 15.11.2012. As per the guidelines, the entire Country will be classified as Notified Area and Non-notified areas. So far as the notified areas are concerned, permission to abstract Ground Water through any energized means will be accorded for the only purpose i.e. drinking purpose. As far as the drinking purposes are concerned, No Objection Certificate (NOC) can be accorded for construction of groundwater abstraction structures/replacement of existing defunct well for drinking purpose only.

4. As far as the State of Tamil Nadu is concerned, though they have enacted the Tamil Nadu Ground Water (Development and Management) Act, 2003 for regulating tapping of Ground Water in Tamil Nadu, the said Act having received the assent of the Governor, never notified and ultimately by an Ordinance No. 3/2013, the same was repealed. Thus, as on date, there is no source of authority or power for the Tamil Nadu to regulate Water within its territory. It is further stated that the Central Act being in force, which governs the entire Country, the guidelines issued by the Central Ground Water Authority will be made applicable to the State of Tamil Nadu. That being the position, the developments in Tamil Nadu will have to be traced only with the Central Regulations for the purpose of the present writ petitions. The Government issued G.O.Ms. No. 51, Public Works Department, dated 11.02.2004, whereby the two category of areas were brought out viz., Dark and Grey areas. The blocks, which more than 85% of under Ground Water Development were classified as "Dark" Block, where the underground water development was between 65% and 85%, they were categorized as "Grey" blocks. The above said Dark and Grey Blocks were done on the basis of Ground Water Estimatio