JUDGMENT :

(Prayer: Writ Petition filed Under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, to issue a Writ of Mandamus, forbearing the respondents from constructing a Canal in the land in S.Nos.1/1, 1/2A, 1/2B and 2/2 in Nemilicherry Village and S.No.35/1 in Karunakaracherry Village, Poonamallee Panchayat, Poonamallee Taluk, Thiruvallur District, belonging to and owned absolutely by the petitioner.)

1. The relief sought for in the present writ petition is to forbear the respondents from constructing a Canal in the land in S.Nos.1/1, 1/2A, 1/2B and 2/2 in Nemilicherry Village and S.No.35/1 in Karunakaracherry Village, Poonamallee Panchayat, Poonamallee Taluk, Thiruvallur District.

2. The writ petition is filed based on the apprehension by the petitioner / EVP Estates and Properties Development Limited. It is contended by the petitioner that the Tamil Nadu Public Works Department officials were digging up a portion of the land to construct a Canal and the said property belongs to the petitioner.

3. The petitioner has stated that they sent representation to redress their grievances and to stop further digging up the property belongs to the petitioner. However, the respondents refused to accept the objections. Thus, the writ petitioner is constrained to move the present writ petition.

4. The counter filed by the respondents during November 2016 would reveal that the petitioner has suppressed the fact that there has been a water course in S.Nos.1,2 and 9 of Nemilicherry Village of Thiruvallur Taluk, which is owned by the petitioner herein to carry the water discharged from the sluice No.2 of the Tirunindravur tank through a channel classified as such in the revenue records and in S.Nos.10/3, 11/2, 27/3, 29 and 37 of Nemilicherry Village of Tiruvallur District and enters into the limits of S.Nos.1,2 and 9 of the same village, which belongs to the petitioner herein. It is a natural course available for the past several decades which has been used by the agriculturists depending on the Tirunindravur tank for irrigation as a customary right and privilege. In view of the heavy and torrential rain that battered the Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram and Chennai Districts in November and December 2015, there was flooding in Annai Indra Nagar Annex, EVP Town, Padmavathy Nagar and Devi Nagar in Nemilicherry Village, it is the duty of the respondent Department to desilt, widening and other sine qua non works in the water bodies to facilitate easy draining of any surplus water from the water sheds from the upland so as to avoid recurrence of such incidence in the event of heavy rain during the current North East Monsoon.

5. Hence, the natural water course available in the patta land of the petitioner for irrigating and draining the water collected in the upland was desilted and trimmed to facilitate easy draining of water of the tank, which caused inundation due to backing up in the months of November and December 2015. The respondents have further elaborated regarding the encroachment in certain locations in that area in Paragraphs 5, 7 and 8 as under:

“5. The Tamil Nadu Government enacted the Tamil Nadu Protection of Tank and Eviction of Encroachment Act, 2007 (Act, 2007) for the purpose of providing measures for checking the encroachment, eviction of encroachment in tanks which are under the control and management of Public Works Department, protection of such tanks and for matters incidental thereto and this Act plays dual role for the protection of tank and for eviction of encroachments and the terms 'field channel' and 'field drainage' in this Act has been defined as follows:

“field channel' means a channel existing or to be constructed to receive and distribute water for irrigation;

'field drainage' means a water course which discharges waste or surplus water from the land;”

As such both the terms 'field channel' and 'field drainage' form part and parcel of the Tirunindravur tank system for the purpose of protection as envisaged in the Act, 2007, if not for e