The Secretary to Government vs Waste Management Operators Association of South In

2026:MHC:4432
W.A.No.3362 of 2026
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
DATED : 03.11.2026
CORAM :
THE HONOURABLE MR. SUSHRUT ARVIND DHARMADHIKARI,
CHIEF JUSTICE
AND
THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE G.ARUL MURUGAN
W.A. No. 3362 of 2026
CNR:{ HCMA012651622026 }
and C.M.P.No.30001 of 2026


1.The Secretary to Government
Government of Tamil Nadu,
Municipal Administation and Water Supply
Department, Fort St. George,
Chennai - 600009.
2.The Director of Municipal Administration
Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration
Department, Chepauk, Chennai - 600005.
Appellant(s)
Vs
Waste Management Operators Association
of South India, Rep. by its Secretary, Senthil,
No.5H, 5th Floor, Gee Gee Emerald,
Valluvarkottam High Road, Nungambakkam,
Chennai-600 034.
Respondent(s)
______________
Page 1 of 12
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis ( Uploaded on: 03/11/2026 08:29:59 pm )

2026:MHC:4432
W.A.No.3362 of 2026
PRAYER : Appeal filed under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent to set aside
the order dated 30.10.2026 passed by the learned Single Judge in
W.M.P.No.50214 of 2026 in W.P.No.44715 of 26.
For Appellant(s): Mr.Vijay Narayan, Advocate General
and Mrs.Kavitha Nithyanandan Rameshwar
Additional Advocate General
assisted by Mr.L.Gokulraj
Additional Government Pleader
For Respondent(s):Mr.T.Mohan, Senior Counsel
for Mr.M.Santhanaraman
JUDGMENT
(Delivered by the Hon'ble Chief Justice)
The present intra-court appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters
Patent has been preferred by the State assailing the interlocutory
order dated 30.10.2026 passed by the learned Single Judge in
W.M.P.No.50214 of 2026 in W.P.No.44715 of 2026. By the said
interim order, the learned Single Judge granted an omnibus stay of
G.O. (Ms.) No.181, Municipal Administration and Water Supply
(ME.3) Department, dated 09.10.2026, relating to the restructuring
and execution of Solid Waste Management operations under
"Category II" across 147 Urban Local Bodies.
______________
Page 2 of 12
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis ( Uploaded on: 03/11/2026 08:29:59 pm )

2026:MHC:4432
W.A.No.3362 of 2026
2. The core issue that falls for narrow consideration in this
appeal is whether the learned Single Judge was legally justified in
granting an expansive interim order on 30.10.2026 that effectively
granted the final relief sought in the writ petition, namely, halting a
major executive policy framework concerning public health and
municipal conservancy on the very eve of the expiration of
transitional contract extensions, without satisfying the foundational
tests governing interlocutory orders.
3.1. Learned Advocate General submitted that the impugned
interim order is ex-facie unsustainable, having been rendered in
complete disregard of the well-settled jurisdictional parameters
governing judicial review of executive policy decisions. The
formulation of an administrative model for municipal solid waste
management falls squarely within the executive domain of the State
and the constitutional competence of Urban Local Bodies under
Article 243W read with Entry 6 of the Twelfth Schedule to the
Constitution of India.
3.2. Learned Advocate General further submitted that G.O.
______________
Page 3 of 12
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis ( Uploaded on: 03/11/2026 08:29:59 pm )

2026:MHC:4432
W.A.No.3362 of 2026
(Ms.) No.181 was promulgated to ensure strict and scrupulous
compliance with the statutory mandates of the Solid Waste
Management Rules framed under the Environment (Protection) Act,
1986. Field experience revealed that commercial intermediaries
frequently compromised environmental standards and exploited
workers by deducting EPF and ESI contributions without depositing
them with statutory authorities. The new hybrid direct-management
model eliminates commercial profiteering by ensuring direct
electronic bank transfers, biometric attendance authentication to
prevent "ghost workers", and direct statutory remittances.
3.3. Relying on the foundational pronouncements of the
Supreme Court in Erusian Equipment & Chemicals Ltd. v. State of
1
West Bengal and Association of Registration Plates v. Union of
2
India , it was argued that commercial contractors possess no
vested, fundamental, or statutory right to demand perpetual
contract renewals or to dictate that the State must continue an
outsourcing model rather than manage utilities departmentally or
through community federations.
1
(1975) 1 SCC 70
2
(2005) 1 SCC 679
______________
Page 4 of 12
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis ( Uploaded on: 03/11/2026 08:29:59 pm )

2026:MHC:4432
W.A.No.3362 of 2026
3.4. Learned Advocate General severely opposed the omnibus
interim order passed at the behest of an association whose locus
standi is profoundly flawed. It is submitted that the respondent is
an unregistered or loosely formed association representing only
seven private waste management operators, who have no
subsisting contractual relationship with any Urban Local Body. To
grant a blanket injunction freezing a Rs.616.28 Crore public health
architecture across 147 Urban Local Bodies, when 140 ULBs had
zero subsisting contracts, violates every canon governing the grant
of interlocutory relief.
3.5. Furthermore, it was submitted that the balance of
convenience heavily favoured the State, whereas the interim order
stayed sanitation operations across 147 Urban Local Bodies on the
eve of the expiry of transitional extensions, threatening to plunge
towns into complete sanitation paralysis and exposing millions to
epidemiological hazards.
4.1. Per contra, learned Senior Counsel for the respondent
______________
Page 5 of 12
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis ( Uploaded on: 03/11/2026 08:29:59 pm )

2026:MHC:4432
W.A.No.3362 of 2026
association vigorously defended the interim order, contending that
the learned Single Judge acted with utmost propriety to prevent
arbitrary and wholesale displacement of established private
operators.
4.2. It was submitted that G.O.(Ms.) No.181 suffers from
manifest arbitrariness and procedural irrationality, violating Article
14 of the Constitution of India, by artificially bifurcating Urban Local
Bodies into Category I and Category II without any intelligible
differentia.
4.3. It was contended that under the erstwhile 2022 policy,
private contractors were induced to make massive capital
investments in procuring compactor trucks, hook loaders, battery-
operated vehicles (BOVs), and mechanized sorting equipment under
tender specifications containing long-term operational Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs). To abruptly terminate this
framework without stakeholder consultation or hearing constitutes
an unreasonable infringement of the legitimate expectation of the
contractors and their right to carry on trade under Article 19(1)(g)
______________
Page 6 of 12
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis ( Uploaded on: 03/11/2026 08:29:59 pm )

2026:MHC:4432
W.A.No.3362 of 2026
of the Constitution of India.
4.4. An objection was also raised regarding the maintainability
of the writ appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent against an
ad-interim order, arguing that the State ought to have sought to
vacate the stay before the learned Single Judge.
5. At the threshold, we must address the respondent's
preliminary objection regarding the maintainability of this intra-
court appeal. It is trite law that while routine, purely procedural
interlocutory orders are not appealable under Clause 15 of the
Letters Patent, an order which possesses the characteristics and
consequences of a "judgment", by deciding a vital issue, altering
legal rights or causing immediate, substantial and irreversible
prejudice to public interest, is amenable to appellate scrutiny.
6. The Supreme Court in Midnapore Peoples' Coop. Bank Ltd.
3
v. Chunilal Nanda , held that interim/interlocutory orders passed
during the pendency of a case, broadly fall into the following
3
(2006) 5 SCC 399
______________
Page 7 of 12
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis ( Uploaded on: 03/11/2026 08:29:59 pm )

2026:MHC:4432
W.A.No.3362 of 2026
distinct classes:
“ 15. Interim orders/interlocutory orders passed
during the pendency of a case, fall under one or
the other of the following categories:
(i) Orders which finally decide a question or issue
in controversy in the main case.
(ii) Orders which finally decide an issue which
materially and directly affects the final decision in
the main case.
(iii) Orders which finally decide a collateral issue
or question which is not the subject-matter of the
main case.
(iv) Routine orders which are passed to facilitate
the progress of the case till its culmination in the
final judgment.
(v) Orders which may cause some inconvenience
or some prejudice to a party, but which do not
finally determine the rights and obligations of the
parties.”

The Supreme Court further held that, while orders falling under the
first three categories constitute " judgments " and are appellable, the
orders falling under the categories (iv) and (v) are not.
______________
Page 8 of 12
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis ( Uploaded on: 03/11/2026 08:29:59 pm )

2026:MHC:4432
W.A.No.3362 of 2026
7. Upon a careful examination of the preliminary objection
regarding maintainability, this Court holds that the impugned
interim order is not a routine or procedural ruling falling under
categories (iv) or (v) postulated in the decision in Midnapore
Peoples' Coop. Bank Ltd (supra). Instead, by paralyzing essential
municipal sanitation operations across 147 urban centres and
altering vital legal rights, the order possesses the direct
characteristics and consequences of a "judgment" amendable to
appellate scrutiny under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent.
8. It is a well-settled principle of law reiterated by the
4
Supreme Court in N.G. Projects Ltd. v. Vinod Kumar Jain and
5
National High Speed Rail Corp. Ltd. v. Montecarlo Ltd that courts
must exercise extreme circumspection and refrain from issuing
mechanical interim stays that halt essential public works,
infrastructural frameworks, or public utilities. When private
commercial expectations are pitted against overwhelming public
interest, public interest must decisively prevail. In the instant case,
the balance of convenience lay overwhelmingly in favour of the
4
(2022) 6 SCC 127
5
(2022) 6 SCC 401
______________
Page 9 of 12
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis ( Uploaded on: 03/11/2026 08:29:59 pm )

2026:MHC:4432
W.A.No.3362 of 2026
State, as the interim stay risked plunging 147 municipal
jurisdictions into catastrophic epidemiological and public health
hazards.
9. In the larger public interest and to ensure the seamless
continuation of public conservancy services, this Court deems it fit
and proper to set aside the interlocutory order dated 30.10.2026
passed in W.M.P.No.50214 of 2026 in W.P.No.44715 of 2026.
10. The writ appeal is, accordingly, allowed and the order
dated 30.10.2026 is hereby set aside. The appellants are granted
full liberty to implement G.O. (Ms.) No.181 dated 09.10.2026 in
terms of the operational directions specified herein. There shall be
no order as to costs. Consequently, connected miscellaneous
petition stands closed.
It is made abundantly clear that all observations and findings
recorded in this judgment are strictly prima facie in nature and are
confined solely and exclusively to the determination of the present
intra-court appeal concerning interlocutory relief. All other
______________
Page 10 of 12
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis ( Uploaded on: 03/11/2026 08:29:59 pm )

2026:MHC:4432
W.A.No.3362 of 2026
submissions, contentions, pleadings and arguments touching upon
the merits of the main challenge to G.O. (Ms.) No.181 shall be
considered, evaluated, and adjudicated independently by the
learned Single Judge. The appellants are directed to file their
comprehensive counter-affidavits in the writ petition within a period
of three (3) weeks from today. In view of the public importance and
State-wide ramification of the issues involved, we request the
learned Single Judge to expedite the final hearing and endeavour to
dispose of W.P.No.44715 of 2026 as expeditiously as possible.
(SUSHRUT ARVIND DHARMADHIKARI, CJ) (G.ARUL MURUGAN,J)
03.11.2026
Index : Yes
Neutral Citation : Yes
sasi
______________
Page 11 of 12
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis ( Uploaded on: 03/11/2026 08:29:59 pm )

2026:MHC:4432
W.A.No.3362 of 2026
THE HON'BLE CHIEF JUSTICE
AND
G.ARUL MURUGAN, J.
(sasi)
W.A.No.3362 of 2026

03.11.2026
______________
Page 12 of 12
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis ( Uploaded on: 03/11/2026 08:29:59 pm )