PARAYIL GRANULAR INDUSTRIES Vs. KUMARANALLOOR GRAMA PANCHAYAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, which obtained Ext.P2 decision from the District Board constituted under the provisions of the Kerala Industrial Single Window clearance Boards and Industrial Township Area Development Act, 1999 (Act 5/2000), hereinafter, for short, the "Act", complains that the first respondent Grama Panchayat is not issuing licence acting on that decision.

(2.) The Grama Panchayat has filed counter affidavit essentially taking the stand that the panchayat has not granted the licence on account of objections by 300 and odd persons in the locality.

(3.) It is not in dispute that the District Board has granted the order in favour of the petitioner. By virtue of Section 10 of the Act, notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, the authority concerned shall, on receipt of the recommendation of the state Board, District Board or Industrial Area Board, issue the clearances, licences or certificates applied for in accordance with the recommendations. It also provides that in the absence of such clearance being issued within ten working days, that would amount to a deemed licence. The Grama Panchayat, unless the context otherwise requires, is an authority for the purposes of the Act, going by the definition in Section 2(e). The context in hand is as to whether an authority is bound by the recommendations of the District Board. There is no room for any contextual exclusion of the Panchayat, for that purpose, from the scope of the definition of "authority" under the Act.