MUHAMMED ANZEL Vs. VILAKKUDY GRAMA PANCHAYATH KUNNIKKOD PO, KOLLAM 691508, REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, who was sanctioned an LPG Distributorship at Punalur by the Indian Oil Corporation, as early as on 11.11.2014, sought approval for constructing a godown, which was granted by the competent authority under the Explosives Act. The petitioner thereafter submitted Ext.P4 application for building permit before the 1st respondent Grama Panchayat. The Grama Panchayat raised objections to the grant of building permit, and rejected the building permit application on the ground that the property, on which the petitioner was proposing the construction, was wetland, as indicated in the revenue records. The Panchayat also raised an objection with regard to the required width of the access road, which according to the Panchayat, was less than 7 mtrs. The petitioner carried the order of the Panchayat in an appeal before the Tribunal for Local Self Government Institutions, which considered the appeal and passed Ext.P8 order upholding the objections of the Panchayat, but granting the petitioner the liberty to offer an alternate site for consideration of the application for building permit. Acting on the liberty granted to it by the Tribunal for Local Self Government Institutions, the petitioner offered an alternate site for the purposes of the building permit and it is not in dispute that the Panchayat does not have any objection with regard to the grant of permission for the alternate site. The dispute in the present writ petition pertains only to the access road to the site now offered by the petitioner, with the Panchayat contending that the access road is through land, which is classified as wetland in the revenue records as also shown as converted land in the Land Data Bank. In the writ petition the petitioner seeks a direction to the respondent Panchayat to consider his application for building permit, in the light of the new site that is offered, as also the access road that is now indicated by it for the purposes of putting up the building.

(2.) When the matter came up for admission, this Court had directed the additional 4th respondent to submit a report with regard to the lie and nature of the property and specifying whether the property in question was included in the draft/notified data bank. A report has since been filed by the LLMC, wherein it is stated that, in the Draft Data Bank, the property through which the access road passes, is shown as wetland with a remark that the property was filled with earth before 2005. The report also indicates that the Agricultural Field Officer, visited the property and was convinced that it was filled with earth earlier and opines that the property cannot be included as paddy land or wetland in the Land Data Bank prepared for the region.

(3.) Taking note of the said report and finding that the only objection which is raised by the Panchayat is with regard to the access road that was indicated by the petitioner, to support the building permit application submitted by him before the Panchayat, which is described as wetland in the revenue records and as converted land in the Land Data Bank, I dispose the writ petition with the following directions: