High Court dismisses review plea by encroachers

However, the court extended the time to vacate the premises till June 30, considering that the examinations of their children are in April and May. 

“Even an erroneous decision cannot be a ground for the court to undertake review, as the first requirement of entertaining a review petition is that the order under review of which is sought suffers from any error apparent on the face of the order and in absence of any such error, finality attached to the judgement cannot be disturbed,” a division bench comprising Justice S Vaidyanathan and Justice Abdul Quddhose held.

The plea moved in 2005 by P Vasantha seeking to save her house built by encroaching a tank at Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram was disposed against her favour in 2007. Subsequently, Vasantha and four others approached the court in 2013 on the same issue. 

This was disposed by an order on December 28, 2017, directing the encroachers to vacate the premises on or before May 01. 

However, when the review applications were taken up for hearing through video conferencing, the petitioners’ counsel, referring to an interim order passed on January 17by the Madurai bench, submitted that after notice under Rule 7 of the Tamil Nadu Protection of Tanks and Eviction of Encroachment Rules, 2007, an opportunity must be given to them and thereafter orders must be passed under Rule 6. 

Countering this, the government advocate submitted that for more than a decade, the petitioners have managed to live in the premises illegally, by initiating various legal proceedings.

Dismissing the review petitions, the bench said, “In any event, this court had passed a final order and we find no error apparent on the face of the record. That apart, the Supreme Court has come down heavily regarding encroachments on tanks and the petitioners cannot squat on the government property for years together.