The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has stepped in for two villagers from Sivagangai district who have been arrested on September 23 and remanded to judicial custody for allegedly removing cement culvert pipes laid near a village tank. The court directed the Principal Sessions Judge, Sivagangai, to hold a special sitting and hear their fresh bail plea.
A Division Bench of Justice G.R. Swaminathan and Justice B. Pugalendhi passed the order on October 9, 2026, while hearing a water body writ petition filed by residents of Ammapatti and Nagappanpatti villages in Thiruppathur taluk.
The villagers objected to work carried out by a private firm, Kwality Shutters. Through the fifth respondent, Athappan, the firm had installed solar panels on more than 65 acres of patta land, which is privately owned land recorded in revenue records. To reach the site, a mud road was laid across the tank’s catchment area, with cement pipes placed beneath it. Before the court, it was conceded that both the road and the pipes were put in without permission.
After the villagers protested, Keelasevalpatti police registered Crime No. 105 of 2026 on September 15 under Sections 191(2), 296(2) and 395(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act, 1992. Natarajan and Xavier Kennedy were arrested on September 23. Their bail plea was dismissed by the Principal Sessions Judge on October 6. Once the petitioners’ counsel brought this to the Bench’s attention, the court made the police a party to the case on its own.
The Bench noted that the Sessions Court had been told solar panels worth Rs. 10 lakh were damaged. When the judges questioned the police official directly, he admitted that no panel had been damaged and that only the culvert pipes were affected. The Bench observed:
“Left with no other option, the villagers themselves removed the culvert pipes on their own. We may not be able to condone the said act. But, for how long should they wait ?. When the official machinery fails, can we blame the citizenry for acting on their own ?. As Judges, it will not be appropriate for us to take the discussion further. But, we have no doubt in our minds that the continued incarceration of the two individuals is not warranted. This is all the more so because their bail petitions were dismissed by projecting falsehood before the Sessions Court.”
The Bench noted that it lacked the bail roster and invoked its supervisory jurisdiction under Article 227 of the Constitution to direct an urgent hearing before the Sessions Court. Relying on Shalini Shyam Shetty v. Rajendra Shankar Patil and Arnab Goswami v. State of Maharashtra, the judges stressed the importance of personal liberty and cautioned against misuse of criminal law. The Bench observed:
“Here, we find a group of rustic villagers espousing the cause of environment. They might have gone overboard. They might have taken the law in their own hands. But we cannot forget the fact that they had only damaged something that was illegally installed. We need persons with passion to stand up for the cause of ecology. If such persons are made to languish in jail on false allegations, that would stifle even genuine activism.”
The High Court directed the Principal Sessions Judge, Sivagangai, to hold a special sitting at 11 AM the next day and to decide the bail petitions by that afternoon. The Assistant Public Prosecutor was asked to appear and place the correct facts before the court. Citing judicial propriety, the Bench declined to indicate what the outcome should be. The case was listed for a compliance report on October 12, 2026 at 4:40 PM.
Case Title: Baskaran and Others v. The District Collector/Monitoring Committee, Sivagangai District and Others
Case Number: WP(MD) No. 29140 of 2026 (with WMP(MD) Nos. 22114 and 22115 of 2026)
