HC: Without laws, can't stop man using borewell

MADURAI: In the absence of any statute, regulation or executive instructions barring a person from extracting water from his own borewell, no prohibitory orders can be passed against the owner of the borewell, Madras high court has ruled.
Disposing of a plea about illegal extraction of groundwater from borewells by private individuals in Tuticorin, a division bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala and Justice P Vadamalai observed that when asked whether any rule, regulation or executive instructions existed to bar an owner from extracting water from his borewell, counsel for the petitioner answered in the negative."In absence of any statute, regulation, executive instructions, barring a person from extracting water from his own borewell, no prohibitory orders can be passed against the owner of the borewell or the persons whom the owner has permitted to extract water," the judges said.
The court was hearing a public interest writ petition filed by A Balamaniraj of Allikulam village in Tuticorin district for a direction to the authorities to prevent illegal extraction of water from borewells and transportation of the same by private individuals in Allikulam village.
Counsel for the petitioner submitted that due to illegal extraction, water level was depleting. However, the judges observed that it was not the petitioner's case that unregulated extraction of water was happening in public borewells. If unregulated extraction of water takes place in a public borewell, then the petitioner can approach the authorities.