The curious case of a hillock which 'vanished': Madras HC disposes petition

A petition filed on Wednesday in the Madras High Court, alleging that an entire hillock between 250 to 300 feet in a village in Theni district in the vicinity of the District Collector's office has 'vanished' due to illegal quarrying, was disposed of by the court.

Disposing of the petition of J Mohanraj, General Secretary of Jabamani Janatha Party, the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh, directed the Theni Collector to respond within a month on what was the fate of the hillock.

Mohanraj in his petition alleged that the hillock in Viranackenpatty hamlet was once spread over 160 acres and that the departments supposed to have control over it and the trees seems to have not bothered to check the 'loot' or report it.

He said the Deputy Director of Geology and Mining had informed him that as per records the land in question was poramboke (land that belongs to govt) and no tender was given by the Collector for quarrying gravel or sand from it.

Since no 'honest information' was there from departments concerned, he had sent a representation on April 12, 2015 to the Chief Secretary, followed by e-mails.

He said he had earlier sent a representation to the Theni District Collector on September 3, 2013, "who all along remained silent". Hence he was constrained to file the present PIL.

The bench, after perusing his petition, said it was of the view that the only direction to be passed was for the Theni District Collector to respond to the petition within a month, specifically answering the issue about what happened to it.