SHIBU S.S. Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The issues arising for consideration in these matters are closely interlinked and they are, therefore, disposed of by this common judgment. The parties and Exhibits are referred to in this judgment, unless otherwise mentioned, as they appear in W.P.(C) No.26114 of 2019.

(2.) The petitioner owns an item of property abutting Ithikkara - Adhichanallur in Kollam district maintained by the Public Works Department of the State Government. He has been sanctioned by the fifth respondent, an Oil Marketing company, to establish a retail outlet of petroleum products in the said property. In order to facilitate the establishment of the petroleum outlet sanctioned to the petitioner, the fifth respondent applied for No- objection Certificate provided for under Rule 144 of the Petroleum Rules, 2002 (the Rules) before the District Authority under the Rules, namely, the fourth respondent. The case set out by the petitioner in the writ petition is that the application preferred by the fifth respondent is not being considered by the fourth respondent, as the third respondent, the Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department has not cleared the proposal of the fifth respondent since the property of the petitioner is not one conforming to the Guidelines for Access, Location and Layout of Roadside Fuel Stations and Service Stations prescribed by Indian Road Congress (IRC Guidelines) for establishment of petroleum retail outlets. According to the petitioner, IRC Guidelines do not have the force of law and the District Authority under the Rules is, therefore, not justified in withholding the No-objection Certificate sought on behalf of the petitioner on that ground. The petitioner, therefore seeks appropriate directions to the fourth respondent to issue the No Objection Certificate sought by the fifth respondent without insisting compliance of the IRC guidelines for the property proposed for the petroleum outlet.

(3.) It is seen that in similar writ petitions instituted earlier, this Court had issued interim orders directing the District Authorities concerned to consider the requests for No-objection Certificate without insisting compliance of IRC guidelines for the properties proposed for the outlets. In the light of the said interim orders, this Court has passed interim order on similar lines in this matter also on 01.10.2019.