Order evicting 200 from Ooty housing unit stayed

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday issued an interim injunction against the order of a single judge directing the Udhagamandalam Municipality to evict 200 families from a civic body-owned residential facility.

The first division bench comprising acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy issued the direction on hearing a appeal by Bernath Marry and 65 other residents.

According to their counsel Thanga Vadhana Balakrishnan, though the municipality quarters were allotted for its employees, these housing units were built as model houses for low-income groups (LIG) right from 1866 by the British. Hence, they could not be termed as encroachers, she argued.

Recording the submission, the bench passed an interim stay order passed to evict around 200 families and to take possession of the disputed quarters.

The single judge had observed that the municipal Commissioner failed to take action despite several complaints that civic body staff and their heirs were subletting the premises allotted to them, and directed The Nilgiris Collector to conduct an inspection and submit a report after evicting the illegal occupants.