SR. JANCY MADATHIKUNNEL Vs. DISTRICT MEDICAL OFFICER, COLLECTORATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In all these writ petitions, the dispute pertains to the Building Permit, Occupancy Certificate and the Consent to Establish granted to the 9thand 3rdrespondents in WP(C) No.20590/2023, to establish an automobile workshop/service centre, to repair light motor vehicles manufactured by Maruti. (For convenience, WP(C) No.20590/2023 is treated as the leading case and the parties and Exhibits are referred to as described in the said writ petition, unless otherwise specifically mentioned).

(2.) The facts which are necessary to consider the issues are as follows: The petitioners in all these writ petitions are claiming to be persons/establishments residing or having properties near the property owned by the 9threspondent, where an automobile workshop is being established by the 3rdrespondent. The property where the workshop is being established has an extent of 45.52 Ares, and the said property is situated on the side of Pala - Erattupetta main road, which comes within the jurisdiction of the 4threspondent - Municipality. The 9threspondent obtained a building permit from the 4threspondent on 26/4/2019 for the construction of a commercial building and later in the year, 2023, the plan was revised as evidenced by Ext.P1 permit granted by the Municipality. Subsequently, on completion of the said building, the 4threspondent issued Ext.P9 occupancy certificate to the said building which has a plinth area of 927.76 Sqm. In Ext.P9 itself, the nature of occupancy was shown as "Industrial Building - Automobile Workshop". WP(C) No.20590/2023 was initially filed seeking a direction to the respondents 1, 2 and 4 to 8 to issue appropriate orders to stop the building construction and commissioning of the automobile workshop as per Ext.P1, by the respondents 3 and 9.

(3.) The main contention raised by the petitioners in WP(C)No.20590/2023 is that, the area where the building is being established is a flood-prone area where the water level came up to 2.318 meters above the ground level, during the flood that occurred in the year 2018. The said plot is near to the Meenachil river and in the subsequent years also there were waterlogging. Therefore, their apprehension is that, if the automobile workshop is established in the said property, in all probability, the water sources of the petitioners are likely to be polluted, in case of a flood, due to contamination from the oil, diesel and petrol from the said workshop.