MANOJ THARAKAN JOSE Vs. DISTRICT GEOLOGIST

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has approached this Court with a prayer that his application for quarrying permit, namely Ext.P3, preferred before the 1st respondent- Geologist be directed to be taken up and disposed of, since he wants to construct a building on his property on the strength of Ext.P1 Building Permit and Ext.P2 Development Permit, issued by Kodakara Grama Panchayat.

(2.) The petitioner says that since the learned Government Pleader had submitted, when this matter was earlier considered by this Court, that Ext.P3 had not been received by the Geologist, he has, pending this lis, preferred Ext.P19 application and thus asserts that the Geologist ought to have allowed this application.

(3.) The petitioner says that, however, without considering Ext.P19 on its merits, the Geologist has now issued Ext.P20 asking him to obtain an Environmental Clearance and that this order is without basis since, going by the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006 and the subsequent notifications of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, dated 9.12.2016, no Environmental Clearance is required for construction of the basement of a building having less than twenty thousand square metres in are. The petitioner, therefore, prays that the respondent- Geologist be directed to take up Ext.P19 and dispose it of in terms of law de hors the requirements in Ext.P20.