SHIJI SEBASTIAN Vs. KERALA STATE POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in this present writ petition, has approached this Court seeking ventilation of his grievance against the order of the Pollution Control Board. An appeal preferred under Section 28 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 is stated to be pending before the Appellate Authority established under the Act.

(2.) The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner is conducting chicken stall under the name and style "K.K. Chicken Centre" in the shop bearing No.X/972 of Koothattukulam Municipality. The aforementioned shop is owned by his wife by virtue of this writ petition. For running the afore mentioned business, he had already obtained Trade Licence from the Municipality, which was valid upto 31.03.2020 and the licence fee has already been paid. The petitioner submitted an application to the 1st respondent ie. Pollution Control Board for consent to operate the chicken stall as it is not situated in a residential area. The 1st respondent inspected the site and on being satisfied that the petitioners' stall satisfies the distance criteria, issued consent to operate dated 12.07.2019 (Ext.P3). The 3Rd respondent is the owner of the shop and nursing rancour against the petitioner, submitted a complaint to the Pollution Control Board and was astounded to receive the revocation of the intention notice dated 25.09.2019. The petitioner submitted an application before the Secretary of the Municipality under the Right to Information Act, enquiring as to the nature of the occupancy of the building door nos.X/950 to X/990, whether the building is in the immediate vicinity of the shop room of the petitioner, where the buildings of the respondent nos.2 and 3 are located. Public Information Officer issued reply dated 12.11.2019 (Ext.P4) stating that the building bearing door numbers aforementioned falls into commercial occupancy.

(3.) On receipt of the application, the petitioner submitted a detailed reply dated 18.10.2019 to revoke intention notice Ext.P5. Without affording an opportunity of hearing 1 st respondent revoked the consent by him order dated 04.11.2019 (Ext.P6). The aforementioned order is appealable, but appeal has been pending for the last two months, no action has been taken so far. In such circumstances, petitioners' predicament is writ large.