THOMASLY Vs. IRINJALAKUDA MUNICIPALITY REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY, IRINJALAKUDA P.O., THRISSUR DISTRICT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the owner of 0.0202 Ares of land in Old Survey No. 152/6 of Irinjalakuda Kara, Mukundapuram Taluk, Thrissur District. With a view to putting up a building, for commercial purposes, in the said property, the petitioner approached the 2nd respondent Municipality with an application for building permit. The said application was however rejected by the 2nd respondent, stating that the land in question was described as 'Nilam' in the Basic Tax Register. Ext.P3 is the order rejecting the application preferred by the petitioner. In the writ petition, the petitioner impugns Ext.P3 order, and seeks a direction to the 2nd respondent to consider his application afresh, taking note of the actual nature of the land.

(2.) When the writ petition came up for admission, this Court called for a report from the 3rd respondent, who is the Convener of the Local Level Monitoring Committee [LLMC], 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 3rd respondent, which shows that, in the draft data bank, the property is included as converted land, and the land is not liable to be included in the data bank as paddy land or wetland. Taking note of the said report, and the judgments of this Court and the Supreme Court in Adani Infrastructure & Developers Pvt. Ltd. Vs. State of Kerala - [2015 (1) KLT 651]; Local Level Monitoring Committee under Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and WetLand Act, 2008 Vs. Ali Akbar - [2015 (1) KLT 906]; Revenue Divisional Officer, Fort Kochi and Others Vs. Jalaja Dileep and Another - [2015 (2) KHC 109] and Local Level Monitoring Committee Constituted under Sec. 5 of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008 in Kizhakkambalam Grama Panchayat Vs. Mariumma - [2015 (2) KLT 516], by which, it is now settled that it is only if the property is included in the land data bank, and is described as 'Nilam' in the Basic Tax Register, that the provisions of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and WetLand Act, 2008 [hereinafter referred to as the '2008 Act'], will apply, and otherwise it is the Kerala Land Utilization Order, 1967 [hereinafter referred to as the 'KLU Order'] that will regulate the conversion of lands, the writ petition is disposed with the following directions: