Consider plea to allow travel on fibre boats to Katchatheevu fest: HC

Madurai: Madras high court on Thursday directed the Centre and state to consider and pass orders on merits and in accordance with law, on a plea seeking a direction to permit fishermen to travel on their fibreglass reinforced plastic motorised boats to take part in the annual festival of St Antony's shrine at Katchatheevu islet.

A division bench of Justices J Nisha Banu and S Srimathy passed the order while hearing a public interest litigation filed by J Brinso Raymond of Ramanathapuram district. During the hearing, the Centre and state submitted that fibre boats are not permitted since they are not safe.

The petitioner stated that he had filed a petition in 2018 and the court had directed the authorities to permit the fishermen to travel in country boats from 2019. Pursuant to the order, fishermen were travelling to the festival on country boats without any complaints.

Since most of the fishermen had upgraded to fibre boats, he had submitted a representation to the authorities seeking to permit travel on them to the festival. Since no action was taken on his representation, he had filed a petition in 2024 in this regard. The court disposed of the petition directing the authorities to consider and pass orders on the representation.

Pursuant to the order, fisheries department authorities passed an order in Feb 2025 stating that fibre boats are designed for fishing and not ferrying passengers and had held that fibre boats are considered less efficient when compared to mechanized boats and countrymade boats. He stated that Rs 2,000 is charged per person on the boats currently to travel to Katchatheevu. Since fishermen can't afford it, he moved court.