Housing projects in TN have to come a halt due to single judge order on sand quarries, govt tells Madras HC

MADURAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday informed the Madurai bench of the Madras high court that housing projects in the state have come to a standstill due to a single judge order to close down all sand quarries.
On November 29, Justice R Mahadevan ordered closure of all quarries in the state within six months. The single judge passed the order on a petition filed by managing director of M R M Ramaiya Enterprises Private Limited seeking the court’s intervention to sell sand imported from Malaysia.The district collectors of Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari preferred the appeal against the order of Justice Mahadevan.
The division bench headed by Justice K Kalyanasundaram heard the appeal against the order. Advocate general Vijay Narayan told the court that it (court) should ensure that rules were followed. However, the single judge had gone beyond it and ordered closure of the sand quarries.
He said due to the single judge order, housing projects in the state had come to a halt. The government had taken steps to streamline sand mining and to prevent illegal sand mining activities. Hence, the order of the single judge needed to be quashed, the advocate general said.
The advocate general also said as per the rules, the company (M R M Ramaiya Enterprises) should get proper permits to store, transport and sell the imported sand by registering it as a dealer. But the company had failed to do so, and the state had not permitted it to transport and sell the imported sand, he said.
The division bench reserved its order.