IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS DATED:25-11-2009 CORAM THE HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE PRABHA SRIDEVAN and THE HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE M. SATHYANARAYANAN W.P.No.13742 of 2008 and M.P.Nos.1,2 and 3 of 2008 A. Vijay Babu .... Petitioner vs 1. The Collector Kanchipuram Collectorate Kancheepuram District 2. The Tahsildar Sriperumbudur Taluk Kunrathur Panchayat Sivanthangal Village 3. Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board rep by its Chairman Annasalai, Guindy, Chennai-600 035 4. The Executive Engineer Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board Tambaram, Kancheepuram District 5. The President Sivanthangal Village Chikkarayapuram Panchayat Kundrathur Post Kancheepuram 6. V. Manoharan 7. Muthukrishnan 8. Siva 9. K.N.C. Sathya 10.S.K. Dharmalingam 11.A.G. Ramamoorthy 12.A. Selvam 13.M. Mani 14.K.M. Karunakaran 15.A. Vasudevan 16.L. Jemini 17.K.Manikkam 18.M.N.Baskar 19.T. Mohan 20.Sivaprakasam https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ 21.C.M.R.Kumar 22.S.R. Rajendran 23.Siva 24.M. Hari Babu 25.Jayagopi 26.S. Devaraj 27.S. Ramamoorthy 28.G.R. Chidambaram 29.M.R.N. Arul 30. A. Hemanathan 31.G.R. Thirumalai 32.K. Mani 33.R. Somasundaram 34.Mohan Raj 35.Masilamani 36.Muthu Chettiar 37.R. Kumar 38.G. Elavarasan 39.D. Santhanam (R6 to R39 Impleaded as per order dated 14.7.2008 in MP NO.3 of 2008 in WP No.13742 of 2008) ... Respondents Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of The Constitution of India praying to issue a Writ of Mandamus as stated therein. For petitioner : Mr.T.Mohan For respondent : R-1, 2 & 5 : M/s.M.Dhandapani, Spl.G.P. R-3 & 4 : Mr.R.Ramanlal R-6,8 to 10, 13 to 16, 18 to 22, 25 to 39 : Mr.V.Sudhakar. ORDER (Order of the Court was made by PRABHA SRIDEVAN,J.,) The prayer in the writ petition is to issue a Writ of Mandamus directing the respondents to forthwith implement in letter and spirit the statutory requirements contained under the Tamil Nadu Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1959 and all other guidelines for operation of quarry and stone crushing units situate in and around Sivanthangal village, Chikkarayapuram Panchayat, Kundrathur, Sriperumbudur Taluk, Kanchipuram District and close down all illegal units which do not adhere to the statutory requirements. 2. Counter affidavit filed by the Pollution Control Board in a connected matter is quite detailed. Mr.Ramanlal, learned standing counsel for the Pollution Control Board submits that it may be looked into for this writ petition also and all the stone units in Chikkarayapuram Panchayat have been closed. Though Show cause notice was issued on 30.7.2008, the crushing unit has no reply to the https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ notice. We extract the relevant paragraphs of the counter filed by the Pollution Control Board. 5. There is guideline from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board that no proposed stone crushing unit shall be located within 500 m from the inhabited site and NH/SH. As far as the existing stone crushing units are concerned (commissioned before 10.5.1999) distance criteria has been fixed based on the NEERI recommendations. The location of the stone crushing units nearer to the residential are to be verified with the help of the concerned Revenue Dept/Local body/CMDA, who are the approving/certifying authority. In this regard the concerned local body/Revenue Dept/CMDA were approached so as to obtain the details of the stone crushing units which are functioning within the prohibited area of 300m in the case of existing industries and 500m in the case of new industries. 6. The above stone crushing units were operating their units without any dust containment and dust control system to suppress the dust generated during operation as stipulated in the Bd's Proceedings Ms.No.4 dated 2.7.2004. The units were also in operation without obtaining consent from the Tamilnadu Pollution Control Baord, which is mandatory for operation of the unit under Water (P&CP) Act, 1974 as amended and Air (P&CP) Act, 1981 as amended. Hence these 38 units were issued with show cause notice by the DEE vide proceedings dt.25.7.2008 for operating the unit without valid consent of the Board and without any dust control measures asking why penal action should not be taken against the unit for closure of the unit and stoppage of power supply for the above violations under section 31A of Air (P&CP) Act, 1981. The reply is awaited from the industries. After receipt of the reply from the units and after getting the requisite details from the other Government Department's further action will be initiated against the stone crushing industries violating under section 21 of Air (P&CP) Act 1981 as amended. 7. It is also submitted that the other 3 stone crusher clusters called Kovur cluster having 25 units, Erikkarai road having 31 units and Malayamabakkam cluster having 5 units were also inspected subsequently on 28.7.2008 and 29.7.2008 and issued show cause notices vide by the District Environmental Engineer proceedings dt.29.7.2008 and 30.7.2008. The reply from the units are awaited. The issues regarding stone quarries are dealt with under the provisions of Tamil Nadu Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1959 by the concerned Department. https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ List of Stone crushing units located in and around Kundrathur Chikkarayapuram Cluster ________________________________________________________ S.No Name of the Unit Name of the owner _________________________________________________________ 1. S.K.D.Blue Metal – I S.K. Dharmalingam 2. Karpagambal Blue Metal S. Selvamani 3. Sivasakthi Blue Metal Prakash 4. Ponram Blue Metal-I Alagurajaa 5. Ponram Blue Metal-II @ S.P.R.Blue Metal Alaguraja 6. G.R.T.Blue Metal G.R. Chidambaram 7. R.K. Blue Metal R.Kumar 8. Sekar Blue Metal@S.M.Blue Metal T. Mohan 9. Jothi Blue Metal T. Mohan 10. Suryakumar Blue Metal S. Devaraj 11. Siva Blue Metal Sivakumar 12. M.S.R.Blue Metal S. Ramamoorthi 13. Ramajeyam Blue Metal Masilamani 14. Chitra Blue Metal Muthu Chettiar 15. Umadevi Blue Metal Sivakumar 16. G.R.C.Blue Metal _ 17. M.R.N.Blue Metal MRN Arul 18. Thillai Nataraja Blue Metal M.N. Balasubdram 19. A.V.D.Blue Metal A. Vasudevan 20. Vasumathi Blue Metal K.M. Karunakaran 21. K.M.K.Blue Metal@ Sivakami Blue Metal K.M. Karunakaran 22. Maruthi Blue Metal Mani 23. Valliammal Blue Metal - 24. K.M.K.Blue Metal K.M. Karunakaran 25. Senthil Blue Metal 26. Sarguna Blue Metal 27. S.K.G. Blue metal Seenu 28. D.S.G.Blue Metal Kalyanasundaram 29. Baburaj Blue Metal Kalyanasundaram 30. Jayagobi Blue Metal Kalyanasundaram 31. M.K.M.Blue Metal K. Mani 32. Omsakthi Blue Metal K. Ramadurai Chettiar 33. C.M.R. Blue Metal-I C.M.R.Kumar 34. C.M.R.Blue Metal-II Jagadeesan 35. S.R.R. Blue Metal S.R. Rajendran 36. Andavar Blue Metal L. Gemini 37. S.K.D. Blue Metal-II Sukumar 38. Vasudevan Blue Metal Erikkarai Road Cluster https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ ________________________________________________________ S.No. Name of the Unit Name of the owner of the crusher ________________________________________________________ 1 Ramjeyam Blue Metal B. Kannan 2. Thanigaivel Blue Metal Nagaraj 3. Solai Blue Metal Balasundaram 4. Screesh Blue Metal M. Sivakumar 5. Santhanam Blue Metal Baskar 6. Baskaran Blue Metal Baskaran 7. K.G.M Blue Metal Murali 8. Gayathri Blue Metal Janarthan Reddy 9. S.M.S. Blue Metal Sukumar 10. Sudha Blue Metal Vijaya Mohan Reddy 11. Kamatchi Blue Metal M. Sankar _________________________________________________________ 3. We have recorded the above and we direct the Pollution Control Board to take action against the units in accordance with the provisions of the Act. 4. We also direct the District Collector, Kancheepuram and Assistant Director of Mines, Kancheepuram to enforce strictly the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Minor Mineral Concession Rules 1959. 5. The writ petition is disposed of with the above direction. No costs. Consequently, connected MPs are closed. 25-11-2009 sr This petition having been posted on Thursday the Twenty Sixth day of November 2009 for being mentioned in pursuance of the order of this Court dated 25.11.2009 and made herein and in the presence of the above said advocates, the Court made the following Order:- Yesterday i.e. 25.11.2009, we had passed a common order in W.P.No.13742 of 2008 and W.P.No.316 of 2009. But at the end of the day before we rose, Mr.N.Jothi, learned Advocate pointed out to us that he was appearing for the private Respondents in W.P.No.316 of 2009 that no notice was served on them and they were not represented by counsel nor their names printed in the cause list and therefore, the matter should be listed as "being mentioned". Therefore, we had directed the Registry to list the case today under the caption "for being mentioned" without signing the orders. 2. Today, the counsel for the petitioner in W.P.No.13742 of 2008, W.P.No.316 of 2009, the learned Standing Counsel for Pollution Control Board and the learned Government Pleader are present. 3. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner in W.P.No.316 of 2009 submitted that no notice had been served on the https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ Respondents till that date. In those circumstances, we ought not to have passed order in the absence of the Respondents. 4. Now, Mr.N.Jothi, has undertaken to appear on behalf of the Respondents. The Registry shall print his name and post W.P.No.316 of 2009 on 01.12.2009 5. As regards W.P.No.13742 of 2008, yesterday we have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Government Pleader. We have also heard the learned Standing Counsel appearing for the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. The two grounds on which both the writ petitions were listed today is that no notice was served and names were not printed. 6. We have also compared the cause list dated 25.11.2009 and 26.11.2009 and we find the names of all the Private Respondents who were served but not represented by counsel and the counsel who were appearing for the other private respondents in W.P.No.13742 of 2008 have been printed in the cause list of 25.11.2009. 7. We have perused the order sheet and notice papers in W.P.No.13742 of 2008 and found that Notice has been served on all of the Private Respondents, after they were impleaded in M.P.No.3 of 2008. So both those grounds do not apply to W.P.No.13742 of 2008. Therefore, the order pronounced yesterday i.e. 25.11.2009 in W.P.No.13742 of 2008 shall stand and need not be recalled. The Registry is directed to post the W.P.No.316 of 2009 alone on 01-12- 2009. Sd/- Asst.Registrar /true copy/ Sub Asst.Registrar gr. TO 1. The Collector Kanchipuram Collectorate Kancheepuram District 2. The Tahsildar Sriperumbudur Taluk Kunrathur Panchayat Sivanthangal Village 3. The Chairman, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board Annasalai, Guindy, Chennai-600 035 https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ 4. The Executive Engineer Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board Tambaram, Kancheepuram District 5. The President Sivanthangal Village Chikkarayapuram Panchayat Kundrathur Post Kancheepuram 6. The Assistant Director of Mining Kancheepuram 7. The Section Officer, Writ Section, High Court, Madras (Post W.P.No.316/09 on 1.12.09) +2 cc to M/s.T.Mohan & Devika, Advocate, SR.No.64114,63769 +1 cc to Mr.V.Sudhakar, Advocate, SR.No.63998 W.P.No.13742 of 2008 SAI {CO} TP/27.11.2009. https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/