Chennai: A week after a TOI article on how politicians and slumlords obstructed removal of encroachments on Adyar riverbanks, Madras high court set a three-month deadline for state govt to clear all the encroachments on the Adyar riverbank or face contempt of court proceedings.“We take judicial notice of the fact that there is a group called slumlords. We recently read in the newspaper that these slumlords enjoy political patronage and that they are able to resist any move to clear the encroachments,” said a division bench of Justice G R Swaminathan and Justice V Lakshminarayanan. Except for a few, most of the encroachers are paying rent of 8,000 to 15,000 to slumlords who have hijacked the entire riverbanks, it added.“We hope that the officials would not succumb to political pressure. We specifically direct the jurisdictional police to provide the necessary police aid as and when requisitioned for clearing the encroachments. The encroachments on the Adyar riverbank have to be cleared within three months. Failure to do so would constitute contempt of court,” the bench said.The court passed the order on a plea moved by residents of Anakaputhur against the action taken to evict them from the area. They claimed that they were in occupation of the said place for several years. They further submitted that they belong to the economically weaker section of society. Their houses have been provided with basic civic amenities and that they are lawful occupants. They have sought patta to regularise their possession.But to date, they have not been issued with patta. Since the officials threatened to dispossess them, they moved the court for protecting their possession.Opposing the plea, additional advocate-general J Ravindran contended that the writ petition deserved to be dismissed at the very threshold. He pointed out that the petitioners were encroachers and that their encroachment came under the objectionable category. Yet, the govt took steps to suitably rehabilitate them. Alternative housing accommodation has been made ready and all that the petitioners need to do is to offer their biometric details.The authorities are ready to hand over keys to the petitioners the moment they vacate the premises in question, he added.Recording the submissions, the court pointed out that time and again both the Madras high court and the Supreme Court held that encroachments in water bodies cannot be permitted and they cannot be regularised notwithstanding the length of time in the matter of occupation. In view of the aforesaid authoritative decision of the full bench, no person in occupation of a water body can claim any relief or protection at the hands of the court, the bench added.