The court established that orders under the Tamil Nadu Land Encroachment Act are revisable and that personal hearings are not required unless mandated by previous directives.

ORDER :

M. SUNDAR, J.

As regards the captioned main 'Writ Petitions' ['WPs' in plural and 'WP' in singular for the sake of brevity and convenience], in terms of sequence, though W.P.No.12632 of 2025 is after W.P.No.12628 of 2025, owing to the impugned order in W.P.No.12632 of 2025 being prior in point of time, 'W.P.No.12632 of 2025' shall be referred to as 'I WP' and 'W.P.No.12628 of 2025' shall be referred to as 'II WP'].

2. Mr.Arvind Srevasta, learned counsel on record for writ petitioner in both the captioned WPs is before this Court. The 'writ petitioner' shall be referred to as 'KIMAPL' denoting 'Kings International Medical Academy Private Limited'.

3. Short facts (shorn of elaboration) are that one Thiru. P.N.Rajkumar, son of Thiru.P.C.Natarajan filed a writ petition in W.P.No.13468 of 2024 in this Court with a prayer to mandamus official respondents to remove alleged encroachment in a 'water body (pond) in Survey No.65 of Poonjeri Village, Thirukkazhukundram Taluk, Chengalpattu District' [hereinafter 'said pond' for the sake of convenience and clarity]; that this writ petition came to be disposed of by this very Bench in and by an order dated 12.07.2024 inter alia directing R1 (District Collector, Chengalpattu District) to consider the representation sent by Thiru.P.N.Rajkumar after show-causing KIMAPL, who is writ petitioner before us; that this Court directed R1 to make an order on merits after considering the response of KIMAPL; that there was a further direction that if R1 comes to the conclusion that there is encroachment, proceedings in accordance with law under applicable Statute shall be commenced and concluded within a time frame; that pursuant to this order, R1 (R2 in W.P.No.13468 of 2025) show-caused KIMAPL, gave a personal hearing itself on 14.03.2025, took the stated position of KIMAPL into consideration and made an 'order dated 22.03.2025' ['I Impugned order' for the sake of convenience]; that pursuant to the I impugned order, R5 has issued a notice signed on 26.03.2025 under Section 7 of 'the Tamil Nadu Land Encroachment Act, 1905 (Tamil Nadu Act III of 1905)' {hereinafter 'said 1905 Act' for the sake of brevity} and this has been assailed in II WP; that this '26.03.2025 order made by R5' shall be referred to as 'II Impugned order'; that the II impugned order is under challenge in the II WP.

4. Learned counsel for writ petitioner KIMAPL submits that kernel of the case of the writ petitioner's response (when show-caused and personal hearing was given) is that KIMAPL is not claiming any rights qua said pond but as it owns lands in and around said property, a request was made to permit KIMAPL to maintain the said pond but without making orders in the said application, I impugned order has been made followed by II impugned order. This is the say of learned counsel for writ petitioner.

5. Issue notice to respondents.

6. Mr.T.K.Saravanan, learned Additional Government Pleader accepts notice for R1 to R5.

7. Before we proceed further, we are of the considered view that Thiru.P.N.Rajkumar, who is writ petitioner in W.P.No.13468 of 2024, should have been added as a respondent but the same has not been done. Therefore, we add Thiru.P.N.Rajkumar, son of Thiru.P.C.Natarajan as R6 in W.P.No.12632 of 2025 and Mr.S.Angamuthu (Enrollment No.1771/09), learned counsel with address for service at No.134 and 135, 2^nd Floor, Broadway Road, Chennai – 600 104 accepts notice for R6. Considering the nature of the matter, main WPs were taken up in the Admission Board with the consent of all the aforesaid learned counsel on both sides.

8. After hearing all