JOHN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) K. Balakrishnan Nair. The petitioners challenge two orders of the Government, granting exemption from the operation of certain provisions of the Kerala building Rules and also the building permit granted on the basis of those orders in favour of respondents 5 and 6. The brief facts of the case are the following:

(2.) THE petitioners are the tenants of a building jointly owned by respondents 5 and 6. THE said respondents have filed Rent Control petitions against them and other tenants for eviction under S. 11 (4) (iii) and (iv) of the Kerala Buildings (Lease and Rent Control Act, 1965. Ext. PI is the rent Control Petition filed against the 1st petitioner, to which he has filed ext. P2 objection. A Photostat copy of the building permit obtained by the landlords was produced a1ongwith the Rent Control Petition, as evident from the list of documents in Ext. P1. THE petitioners submit, the copy of the permit was not served on them. When the case was listed for trial, the copy of the building permit was perused by the counsel for the petitioners and it was found that two Government orders were referred to in it. Ext. P3 is the copy of the building permit. On the advice of the counsel, the petitioners obtained copies of those orders in September, 2002. Those orders are Exts. P4 and P5. THE petitioners found that Exts. P4 and P5 grant exemption from the operation of various mandatory provisions of the Building Rules and they were issued without following the mandatory statutory procedure. THErefore, they filed this Original petition in October, 2002, challenging those orders and the building permit issued based on them.

(3.) HEARD the learned counsel Shri George Poonthottam for the petitioners, the learned Govt. Pleader Shri M. A. Thomaskutty for respondents 1 and 2, Shri C. Varghese Kuriakose for respondents 5 and 6. The respective learned standing counsel for respondents 3 and 4 were also heard.