KASTURBA ENGLISH MEDIUM TRUST Vs. SECRETARY, ELOOR MUNICIPALITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner is a Trust running a school affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Some of the buildings of the school are constructed in the lands covered by Exts.P1 and P2 documents. Since the lands covered by Exts.P1 and P2 documents were originally paddy lands, the petitioner applied for and obtained permission of the competent authority under the Land Utilisation Order (Kerala), 1967 for making use of the lands for other purposes. Ext.P11 is the order obtained by the petitioner in this regard. It is seen that even before Ext.P11 order, the petitioner had constructed a building in the lands covered by the said documents, after obtaining the requisite building permits from the erstwhile Eloor Grama Panchayat. After Ext.P11, the petitioner has made a few additional structures also in the land on the strength of the building permits obtained from the Panchayat. During September, 2019, the petitioner applied for a building permit to replace the roof of the school building constructed by them during 2009 in the lands covered by Exts.P1 and P2 documents. On the said application, the petitioner was issued Ext.P23 communication by the first respondent stating that as the lands over which the building is put up are shown in the revenue records as paddy lands, the petitioner has to get their lands reclassified as dry lands in the revenue records and get the building constructed therein regularised in order to obtain the building permit sought for. In the meanwhile, the petitioner preferred an application before the third respondent for change of classification of the land as dry land. In response to the said application, the petitioner was issued Ext.P20 communication by the third respondent stating, among others, that in order to seek change of classification of the land, the petitioner has to obtain orders in terms of the provisions of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008 (the Act). The writ petition, in the circumstances, is filed challenging Ext.P23 communication issued by the first respondent and for a direction to the first respondent to grant the building permit sought for by the petitioner for change of the roof of the building without reference to the revenue records of the land and the provisions of the Act.

(2.) Pending disposal of the writ petition, the petitioner preferred I.A. No.2 of 2020 for amendment of the writ petition for incorporating a few additional reliefs. One of the reasons for seeking amendment of the writ petition is that the application preferred by the petitioner during the pendency of the writ petition for a fitness certificate of the school building was also declined on the grounds mentioned in Ext.P23. Another reason for seeking amendment of the writ petition is that Ext.P27 application preferred by the petitioner for reassessment of the lands covered by Ext.P11 order during the pendency of the writ petition was not attended to by the competent authority under the Kerala Land Tax Act, viz, the additional third respondent.

(3.) Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner as also the learned Government Pleader.