Tamil Nadu: Man complains damage to home due to coconuts, Madras HC passes orders in his favour

Chennai: Green warriors moving courts to save trees is something that has been well documented. However, in an unusual case, a man in Tamil Nadu, annoyed over falling coconuts damaging the tiles of his house roof, has successfully got a verdict from the Madras High Court to cut down a coconut tree grown by a neighbour, Kaliyamurthy, next to his compound wall. 

The litigant, Vinoth Kumar of Mayiladuthurai district, a fertile region in the Cauvery delta, had knocked on the doors of the court complaining about the coconut tree that was leaning over the compound wall and causing damage to the tiles of his home. 

Coconut damaging home

Vinoth Kumar submitted that coconuts and dry branches often fell from the neighbour’s coconut tree damaging the tiles. This caused him mental agony. 

As the owner of the coconut tree did not take measures to prevent the falling of the coconuts and dry branches on his roof, Vinoth Kumar had earlier approached the Mayiladuthurai Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) to take action. The RDO after an enquiry agreed with him and issued an order in October 2021 to cut the tree. However, the RDO’s order was not implemented by the police and Kaliyamurthy too did not want to cut the tree. 

Therefore, he filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking a direction to the jurisdictional Deputy Superintendent of Police to execute the order of the RDO and cut the tree. 

Though the court issued notice, Kaliyamurthy did not respond to it. 

Right to protect property

Passing ex-parte orders in the case, Justice C V Karthikeyan said, Vinoth Kumar had a right to protect his property. “He has a right to ensure that his property is not damaged owing to issues beyond his control, which could be reasonably controlled by the orders of the authorities,” the judge said. 

Pointing out that the RDO too was convinced that the tree was leaning over the tiled roof of the petitioner’s house, the judge said: “Taking into consideration the difficulties the petitioner is put to, particularly because he has a tiled roof house and the naturally falling coconuts would break the tiles and thereby cause damage resulting in loss, the Kuthalam Tahsildar must take immediate steps to cut the coconut tree.”

At the same time, the court directed Vinoth Kumar must plant any other sapling in place of the tree. To this, his counsel, said the petitioner would plant a guava sapling, which the court agreed.