Don’t turn Marina beach into Marina bazaar, Madras High Court tells Chennai Corporation

Two judges of the Madras High Court on Friday (December 19, 2025) decided to inspect the Marina beach in Chennai on Monday (December 22, 2025) in order to take stock of the Greater Chennai Corporation’s (GCC) proposal to regulate vendors and obtain the internationally-recognised blue flag certification.

Justices R. Suresh Kumar and A.D. Jagadish Chandira told Advocate General P.S. Raman that they would be inspecting the beach at 9 a.m. on Monday and ordered the officials of the State government, GCC, Collectorate, and Greater Chennai Police Commissionerate to assist them in the inspection.

The judges said, all revenue records related to the beach, the maps of the proposed area abutting the service road where the vendors would be allowed to put up shops in a row, and the facilities that the visitors to the beach would be provided under the blue flag project should be placed before them.

The Bench decided to pass further orders on the issue on January 7 after completing its inspection on December 22. The decision to conduct a personal inspection was taken during the hearing of a writ petition filed by S. Devi of Chepauk, who had sought a direction to the GCC to grant a vending licence for her at the beach.

During the course of hearing of the writ petition, Justice Kumar recalled that a Division Bench comprising Justices Vineet Kothari (since retired) and himself had passed several directions related to the upkeep of the Marina beach and regulation of the vendors a few years ago, but nothing concrete had happened so far.

The senior judge said, in 2020, the GCC had decided to procure about 900 uniformly-sized push carts for the vendors on the Marina beach and allot them through a transparent process. However, subsequently, the project was dropped and the vendors continued their haphazard business on the beach, the judge rued.

However, now, when the Environment Secretary as well as the GCC Commissioner have apprised the court of the plan to regulate the vendors and the blue flag project, the judges said, it must be ensured that visitors, especially children, to the beach get to enjoy its beauty without it being choked by vendors.

“Don’t convert the Marina beach into a Marina bazaar. If you allow thousands of vendors on the beach, where will there be space for the visitors who want to enjoy the sea breeze? If you allow too many vendors, there might be problems in getting the blue flag certification too,” Justice Kumar told the A-G.