ORDER

The petitioner has challenged the impugned communication dated

23.09.2014 issued by the respondent/The Municipal Commissioner. It is the specific case of the petitioner that the petitioner is in occupation of a bunk shop which was put up 25 years prior to the filing of writ petition and that the petitioner is regularly paying necessary charges to the Municipal Commissioner from time to time without any default.

2.It is submitted that some of the 3rd parties viz., Abdul Hakeem, Kaleel and Farook with an intention to grab the shop started to pick up quarrel with the petitioner, therefore, he had send a legal notice dated 11.01.2008 to the above persons. It is further submitted that the petitioner has also lodged a criminal complaint. It is further submitted that the petitioner had earlier approached this Court in W.P.No.2376 of 2008 to consider and pass appropriate orders on the petitioner's legal notice dated 11.01.2008. Pursuant to which the impugned order has been passed.

3.Opposing the prayer, the learned counsel for the respondent submits that the impugned order is well reasoned and requires no interference. It is submitted that encroachment of the petitioner should be dealt with under section 182 and 183 of the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1980. It is therefore submitted that the present writ petition is liable to be dismissed. 4.I have considered the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel for the respondent. The petitioner is not a licensee of the respondent. He is an encroacher.

5.Encroachment can be removed under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1980 in terms of Sections 182 and 183 which reads as under :-

"182. Removal of encroachments.- (1) The [executive authority] may, by notice, require the owner or occupier of any premises to remove or alter any projection, encroachment or obstruction (other than a door, gate, bar or ground-floor window) situated against or in front of such premises and in or over any street.

(2) If the owner or occupier of the premises proves that any such projection, encroachment or obstruction has existed for a period sufficient under the law of limitation to give any person a prescriptive title thereto or that it was erected or made with the permission or licence of any municipal authority duly empowered in that behalf, and that the period, if any, for which the permission or licence is valid has not expired, the municipal council shall make reasonable compensation to every person who suffers damage by the removal or alteration of the same.

183. Power to allow certain projections and erections. - (1) The council may grant a licence, subject to such conditions and restrictions as it may think fit, to the owner or occupier of any premises to put up verandas, balconies, sun-shades, weather-frames and the like, to project over a street, or in streets in which the construction of arcades has been sanctioned by the council, to put up an arcade; or to construe t any step or drain-covering necessary for access to the premises.

[(2) The [executive authority]may grant a licence, subject to such conditions and restrictions as he may think fit, for the temporary erection of pandals and other structures in a public street vested in the council or in any other public place the control of which is vested in the council.

(3) The council shall have power to lease road sides and street margins vested in it for occupation on such terms and conditions and for such period as the council may fix.

(4) But neither a licence under sub-section (1) nor a lease under sub section (3) shall be granted if the projection, construction or occupation is likely to be injurious to health or cause public inconvenience or otherwise materially interfere with the use of the road as such.

(5) The [State Government] may, by notification, restrict and place-under such control as they may think fit, the exercise by municipal councils in general or