Authorities must refrain from coercive eviction while statutory appeals remain pending.

The petitioners challenged the Tahsildar’s proceedings dated 22 July 2026 under Section 6 of the Tamil Nadu Land Encroachment Act, 1905, concerning alleged encroachment on 2.28 acres in Survey No. 230/4, Pattabiramapuram Village. They claimed long-standing possession of one cent each, residence in houses said to have been constructed by the Government, and relied on a decree in their favour in O.S. No. 113 of 1977.

After responding to Section 7 notices, they filed statutory appeals under Section 10(1) before the District Collector; those appeals remained pending when the impugned Section 6 proceedings were issued.

The State submitted that no further action would be taken against the petitioners pending disposal of the appeals.

Whether the Court should entertain the writ petitions challenging the Section 6 proceedings while the petitioners’ statutory appeals under Section 10(1) were pending

Whether coercive action against the petitioners concerning the subject property should be restrained pending disposal of those appeals

Section 6 of the Tamil Nadu Land Encroachment Act, 1905 was the provision under which the challenged proceedings were issued; Section 10(1) provided the petitioners with a statutory appellate remedy.

The Court’s decision rested on the availability and pendency of that remedy: the appellate authority was to decide the appeals on their merits and in accordance with law, after giving the petitioners and other interested parties an opportunity of hearing. No judicial precedent was cited.

Because the petitioners had already invoked the statutory appellate remedy and their appeals were pending before the District Collector, the Court declined to examine the challenge to the Section 6 proceedings at that stage.

It instead directed the appellate authority to hear and decide the appeals, while protecting the petitioners from coercive action in the meantime.

It directed the District Collector to consider and dispose of the appeals on their merits and in accordance with law, after affording a hearing to the petitioners and other interested parties, as expeditiously as possible.

The respondents were restrained from taking coercive steps against the petitioners concerning the subject property until the appeals were disposed of.