COMMON ORDER

(This matter is taken up through Video Conferencing)

The petitioners are agriculturists having their lands at Suriyanallur Village and Kolumanguli Village, Dharapuram, Tiruppur District and have filed these writ petitions as against the orders of the District Collector, Tiruppur dated 8.10.2020 in and by which the District Collector has given enter upon permission to the power generating company called M/s.Suzlon Energy Limited to erect High Tension Towers in the petitioners' lands on certain conditions with the powers conferred upon him under Section 16(1) of the Indian Telegraph Act.

2. M/s.Suzlon Global Services Ltd., (hereinafter referred to as SUZLON) the power generating Company is in the process of laying 26 High Tension Towers to carry the power generated by them by way of Windmills from Nezhali 110/33 Sub Station located at Nezhali Village of Kangayam Taluk, Tiruppur District to the Rasipalayam 400 KV Substation and during such process, they faced some difficulty in entering into the lands earmarked for such erection of Towers. The land owners/farmers of the area in question, having certain apprehensions that if the Towers are permitted to be erected, the access to their land would be restricted, the land value would decrease, they may not be in a position to get any financial assistance with the bankers against their property and it would be rendered unusable, made certain objections to the District Collector for the laying of the towers through their agricultural lands.

3. Due to the objections raised by the petitioners, M/s.Suzlon Global Services Limited had also filed a petitions before the District Collector, for necessary order to enter upon on 5.8.2020 and 28.8.2020. Based on such petitions, the District Collector issued a notice to the respective petitioners for enquiry scheduled on 11.9.2020, 18.9.2020 and 1.10.2020. Despite issuance of such notices, some of the petitioners/land owners did not participate in the enquiry and some of the petitioners/land owners participated in the enquiry and expressed their grievance and the consequences they apprehended that the access to their land would be restricted, the land value would decrease, they may not be in a position to get any financial assistance with the bankers against their property and it would be rendered unusable.

4. The District Collector, after considering the grievance expressed some of the land owners, has passed the impugned orders granting permission to the power generating company SUZLON to erect the Towers in view of the larger public interest involved in the matter viz., adequate power requirement of future and such impugned orders are under challenge in these writ petitions.

5. Mr.N.Manokaran, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners in W.P.No.17334 of 2020 and V.Raghavachari, learned counsel for the petitioners in W.P.No.15896 of 2020, in support of their writ petitions, made their submissions that already during the period from 1989 to 1999, a 400 KV line to connect Rasipalayam and Anaikadavu was laid in some of the lands of the same locality without getting any order 'enter upon permission' and also without paying any compensation to the land owners concerned and now once again the present project is initiated without even properly serving any notice to some of the petitioners/land owners concerned. It is further submitted by the learned counsels that the 'enter upon permission' was obtained by SUZLON under the provisions of Indian Telegraph Act by misleading as if they are the Authorities under the Indian Telegraph Act when they have no such authority and if at all, they ought to have proceeded only under Section 10 of the Electricity Act, 2003. The learned counsels for the petitioners have also sought to canvass the grievances of the petitioners that the access to their land would be restricted, the land value would decrease, they may not be in a position to get any financial assistance with the bankers against their property