Judges’ Quarters in Gudiyatham flooded due to lake breach

The official housing quarters of Judges for Subordinate Court and District Munsif Court near the Combined Court Complex in Gudiyatham town in Vellore got flooded after excess rainwater from a nearby lake entered the Judges Quarters on Tuesday.

Court officials said that the two independent official quarters were occupied by K. Prabu, Subordinate Judge and K. Karthick Asath, District Munsif Judge with their families. The combined court complex also has a Judicial Magistrate Court for which R. Saranya is the Judge.

“With the onset of northeast monsoon rain, two Judges and their families were moved out of their official housing quarters behind the court complex a week ago. They were staying in a temporary accommodation. They will return to their housing quarters after monsoon,” a court official told The Hindu.

Apart from the two Judges, Judicial Magistrate Judge Ms. Saranya is eligible for an official housing accommodation. However, as the existing housing quarters for the Judicial Magistrate were certified “unfit” to stay by the Public Works Department (PWD) a few years ago, no official accommodation has been provided for her.

Officials of PWD, which maintains the court buildings, said that the land near the lake was a barren government land more than two decades ago. The land near the lake was identified for a court complex including housing quarters for Judges in 2007-08 by the State government. Subsequently, the local civic body has issued a NOC to build the new court, by certifying that there is “no waterlogging” in the area.

Encroachments

PWD officials said that the discharge of excess rainwater from nearby villages and wastewater from houses within Gudiyatham municipality has turned the lake into a perennial waterbody. Over the years, more than 50 encroachments, mostly houses, were built on the bund of the lake. These illegal structures have blocked the sluice gates of the lake from discharging excess rainwater into Palar river.

Based on alert from court officials, a team of PWD officials led by S. Panneerselvam, Executive Engineer (EE), PWD (Gudiyatham), began repairing the sluice gates of the lake. 

PWD officials also said that re-laying of stretches around Judges Quarters, without milling, by the civic body has also reduced the height of the housing quarters at least by five feet from the road level. As a result, Judges Quarters, which is along the bund of the lake, gets water-logged every monsoon.

In a rain-related incident, stagnated rainwater is being pumped out from the ancient Jalakanteshwara temple inside the Vellore fort complex, which is an ASI-protected monument. The temple was flooded for the first time since the 2021 floods mainly because of the moat that reached its full capacity last week, ASI officials said.