The duty of the State to protect and conserve water bodies, prevent encroachment, and restore water storage resources to maintain ecological balance and ensure free water flow.

JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus to direct the respondents 1 to 5 herein to remove the encroachment made in and over the Government Odai Poramboke Land (water body) comprised in Survey No.307/3 situated at Etuthavaainatham Village, Kallakurichi Taluk and District by the respondents 6 to 9 herein, so as to enable free water flow in the said Odai poramboke land within a limited time frame to be fixed by this Court by considering the petitioner''s representations, dated 17.07.2021, 26.02.2022 and 26.12.2022.)

S. Vaidyanathan, J.

1. This Writ Petition has been filed praying for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus to direct the respondents 1 to 5 herein to remove the encroachment made in and over the Government Odai Poramboke Land (water body) comprised in Survey No.307/3 situated at Etuthavaainatham Village, Kallakurichi Taluk and District by the respondents 6 to 9 herein, so as to enable free water flow in the said Odai poramboke land within a limited time frame to be fixed by this Court by considering the petitioner''s representations, dated 17.07.2021, 26.02.2022 and 26.12.2022.

2. In the prayer made in the above context, it is seen that a Full Bench and a Division Bench of this Court, has directed that the Government should ensure that there is no encroachment on the water-bodies.

3. This Court, in W.P.No.28656 of 2004, by order dated 10.07.2017, has exhaustively dealt with the aspect of Odai Poramboke encroachment, based on the Full Bench decision and Division Bench decision of this Court, and the relevant portion of the same reads as follows:

"5. It is worthwhile to notice a Full Bench decision of this Court in W.P.No.1294 of 2009, dated 30.10.2015 (T.K.Shanmugam Vs. The State of Tamil nadu and others), wherein the Full Bench has exhaustively dealt with the encroachment on water bodies, the relevant portion of which are extracted hereunder:

"12. A Public Interest Litigation was filed by one Mr.L.Krishnan seeking for a direction against the Government and the Revenue Officials to remove encroachments made by certain private parties in a Odai Poraomboke in Villupuram District. While disposing of the Writ Petition, the Division Bench pointed out that ponds, tanks and lakes have been an essential part of the people''s natural resources, however in recent years, these have been illegally encroached by unscrupulous persons and this has had adverse effect on the lives of the people. Further, it was pointed out that day in and day out, many petitions are filed by way of Public Interest Litigation alleging encroachments into ponds/tanks/lakes/odai Poramboke etc., in different parts of the State, more particularly in villages. Having regard to the acute water scarcity prevailing in the State of Tamil Nadu, it was pointed out that a time has come where the State has to take some definite measures to restore the already earmarked water storage tanks, ponds and lakes as disclosed in the revenue records to its original states as part of its rain water harvesting scheme. The Court took judicial notice of the action initiated by the State Government by implementing the water harvesting scheme as a time bound programme. It was further pointed out that it is imperative that such natural resources provided for water shortage facilities are maintained by the State Government by taking all possible steps both by taking preventive measures as well as by removal of unlawful encroachments. After referring to the decision of the Hon''ble Supreme Court in the case of H inch Lal T iwari Vs. Kamal Devi reported in 2001 (6) SCC 496, it was held that the endeavour of the State should be to protect the material resources like Forests, Tanks, Ponds etc., in order to maintain ecological balance, which would pave the way to provide a healthy environment and enable the people to enjoy a quality life, which is essence of the right guaranteed under Ar