First bench to hear encroachment cases

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday directed its registry to list all the matters related to the land encroachments and water body protection before the bench which is hearing the public interest litigations (PIL). It is noted that the first bench headed by the Chief Justice has been taking the PILs. “Considering the plea by Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran and in order to avoid any conflicting orders being passed by the various courts, we hereby direct the registry to list all matters pertaining to encroachment either on waterbodies, government poramboke land, grazing land, etc. before the court hearing the public interest litigations,” CJ MN Bhandari held while heading the first bench along with Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthi. The AAG submitted that due to the listing of these cases before different benches, different orders are being passed on the same subject matter and prayed for a direction to the registry to list all the matters pertaining to encroachment either on waterbodies, government poramboke land, grazing land, etc. before the court hearing public interest litigation. The AAG made this prayer while the first bench was hearing a matter related to the land encroachment.