S.B.Sinha, J. - (1.) LEAVE granted.
(2.) THE Appellant herein claims herself to be a member of the Okkiam Thoraipakkam Panchayat Union. THEre exists a temple tank in the said village. THE village is located on both sides of the main road connecting Chennai City with Mahabalipuram on the Old Mahabali-puram Road. THE said tank admittedly was lying in disuse. It was in fact an abandoned one. THE Panchayat took a decision of constructing a shopping complex for the purpose of user thereof for resettlement of those persons who were displaced due to expansion of a highway project. THE State of Tamil Nadu also issued a Government Order permitting construction of a shopping complex therein. A writ petition was filed by the Appellant before the High Court of Madras, questioning the said decision. By an order dated 06.12.2005, the High Court, having regard to the stand taken by the Respondents herein in their counter affidavit, appointed the Director, Centre for Water Resources, Guindy, Chennai, as the Commissioner to inspect the tank land and submit a report in regard to the condition thereof. Pursuant to or in furtherance of the said direction, an inspection was carried out at the instance of the Director. A report by the Centre for Water Resources, College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University Chennai also was filed before the High Court. Relying on or on the basis of the said report, a Division Bench of the Madras High Court by reason of the impugned order dismissed the writ petition filed by the Appellant herein. The Appellant is, thus, before us.
(3.) MS. Indu Malhotra, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Appellant, submitted that keeping in view the water shortage faced by the public in general, the High Court committed a manifest error in permitting construction of a shopping complex on a water body. Drawing our attention to a decision of the Division Bench of the Madras High Court in L. Krishnan v. State of Tamil Nadu [AIR 2005 Madras 311], it was argued that the State Government was enjoined with a duty to preserve the tank by taking all possible steps both by way of preventive measures as well as removal of unlawful encroachments and not to use the same for commercial purpose.;