Monday’s suo motu hearing on water theft cancelled

While a notification in the MHC website merely stated that the hearing of Suo Motu Contempt Petition on May 20, presided over by Justice S M Subramaniam is hereby cancelled, sources say that the cancellation was owing to the aspect that the consent of Chief Justice V K Tahilramani, who is the master of the roster, had not been obtained.

However, a contra view also prevailed in this regard that since the Chief Justice is on vacation, a judge of the high court had powers enough to take suo motu cognisance of an urgent issue in the absence of the Chief Justice as the vacation court alone is in progress.

Advocate M Radhakrishnan, said, “The judge was right in taking suo motu cognisance of the issue. But it was not right on the part of the vacation officer to cancel the hearing owing to the failure in obtaining the Chief Justice’s consent. This trickles down to the aspect that no urgent matter can be taken up in the absence of the Chief Justice, while a high court judge is bestowed with the power to take suo motu cognisance of the issue.”

Justice Subramaniam taking cognisance of a media report relating to ground water being stolen by few individuals and sold to public for huge amounts ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 5, 000 for 6,000 litres, had initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against the State for allowing few individuals to commit such illegalities in violation of his earlier judgement as well as the constitutional principles.

The judge in his earlier order had held that mines, minerals and water beneath the earth are national properties and no individual has any right to extract water without permission from the competent authorities.