Madras High Court Dismisses Plea Alleging Violation Of Pollution Norms At Isha Foundation

The bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan took note of a subsequent petition filed by the same petitioner raising the same concerns, in which the pollution control board had conducted an inspection and had submitted a satisfactory report. The bench thus opined that nothing survived in the petition and dismissed the same.

“It is, thus, clear that while the present petition is pending and the issue as to whether seventh respondent was continuing to discharge untreated sewage water into the lands of petitioner is yet to be decided, in the second petition, inspection conducted by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and the report submitted before the Court were found satisfactory,” the court noted.

“In view of the dismissal of the subsequent petition, in our view, nothing survives for consideration in the present petition. This petition is, therefore, dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs. Consequently, the interim applications are also dismissed,” the court further observed.

The petitioner, who claimed to own a farm land adjacent to that of the foundation, had argued that the foundation had not been disposing waste as per norms and that the sewage was being discharged into his land. He had thus sought directions to the authorities not to issue any permission/license to the foundation to conduct any festivals or gatherings without making appropriate arrangements for the discharge of sewage and effluents in a proper manner, and making proper arrangements to prevent the disturbance to the animals in the nearby Velliangiri forest area.

The court noted that in the previous hearing, the pollution control board had filed a counter affidavit in which it was submitted that certain deficiencies were noted in the foundation, for which directions had been issued to remove the deficiencies.

The court noted that while the petition was pending, the petitioner had filed a second petition, particularly challenging the Sivarathri festivities that were being conducted in the foundation. The court noted that in the second petition, the court had asked the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to file a detailed report. In its report, the Board had submitted that the foundation had adequate facilities to handle the waste generated during the festival celebration. Taking note of the submission of the Board, the court had dismissed the pleas.

Considering the facts, in the present petition, the court opined that nothing survived in the petition and thus dismissed the pleas.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mrs. Chitra Sampath Senior Counsel For Mr. Aravind J

Counsel for Respondents: Dr. T. Seenivasan Spl. Govt. Pleader (Forest), Mr. K. Karthik Jegannath Government Advocate, Mr. Muniyapparaj Additional Public Prosecutor, Mr .J. Ravindran Additional Advocate General Assisted by Mr. V. Gunasekar, Mr. Sathish Parasaran Senior Counsel For Mr. K. Gowtham Kumar

Case Title: ST Sivagnanan v. The State of Tamil Nadu and Others

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Mad) 306

Case No: W.P.No.5813 of 2024