T.C.MUTHU Vs. DISTRICT COLLECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners are respectively the owner and contractor in respect of the work for digging a pond for which an application has been filed as per Exhibit P1 along with various documents produced Exhibits P2 to P4. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioners that what is involved is only a clearing of the existing pond and it is not a case of digging up of a new pond in a paddy land. Exhibit P7 is the certificate issued by the Agricultural Officer stating that there is an existing pond and the surrounding area to the extent of 0.3020 hectares is being cultivated with the water therein and if the pond is cleared by three feet more, more area to the tune of 1.4764 hectares could be cultivated by the water available.

(2.) THE grievance raised in the Writ Petition is that in spite of Exhibit P6 communication, no further action has been taken.

(3.) RULE 5 of the Kerala Minor Mineral Concession Rules confers power on the District Collector to grant a No Objection Certificate and going by the proviso, an application for obtaining permission for digging up of or renovation of ponds or wells or tanks and for the renovation of stagnant water bodies in patta lands in order to store water for irrigation, agriculture, pisciculture(aquaculture) or for such other purposes where extraction of ordinary clay and/or ordinary sand is necessary, the No Objection Certificate stipulated in this rule is not mandatory, but shall be accompanied by a certificate from the Agricultural Officer or certain other functionaries. Herein the petitioner has forwarded the certificate of the Agricultural Officer.