The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday directed the State government to file a status report to the public interest litigation petition filed by a fisherman who sought a direction to the State to provide life jackets to all fishermen who had paid for the same.
A Division Bench of Justices A.D. Jagadish Chandira and R. Poornima sought the status report on the petition filed by W. Arulappan of Kanniyakumari district.
The petitioner said in 2023, Assistant Director of Fisheries had issued a circular and directed the country boat fishermen to mandatorily purchase life jackets through the Fisheries Department. The fishermen were told that without life jackets, the boat licence would not be renewed and subsidised kerosene would not be granted.
The amount was fixed based on the capacity of the boat model. In compliance with the circular, the fishermen had submitted their application and paid the amount through demand draft. However, even after five months, the life jackets were not provided to the fishermen who had paid the amount, he said.
He complained that the authorities had failed in their duty. He sought a direction to the authorities to distribute the life jackets to the fishermen who had paid the amount.
