Chennai, The Madras High Court on Wednesday allowed Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary V. Irai Anbu's plea for exemption from personal appearance in a case related to encroachment of water bodies in the state which is listed for Thursday.

The court dispensed with the personal appearance of the Chief Secretary after a CD containing details of all the water bodies in the 313 taluks of the state was presented to the court.

The bench of acting Chief Justice, Munishwar Nath Bhandari, and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu allowed the exemption to the Chief Secretary on the case coming up on Thursday after state Advocate General, R. Shanmugasundaram submitted the CD containing the details of water bodies.

He had prayed before the court to reconsider its December 8 order directing the personal appearance of the Chief Secretary on the hearing slated for Thursday, while informing the court that the details were presented in a CD as they comprise 20,000 pages.

The Advocate General also informed the court that the government has commenced the operations to evict the encroachers from the water bodies in a phased manner and to restore the water bodies in their original format.

The court will be hearing a batch of petitions regarding the encroachment of various water bodies in different parts of the state and plans to issue an order on Thursday.