The main legal point established in the judgment is that an Acknowledgement Certificate obtained under the Kerala MSME Act has the effect of an approval and exempts the holder from the requirement of a license under other laws, such as the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act.

JUDGMENT :

V. Ramasubramanian, J.

Leave granted.

2. George Elias and Associates, which is respondent No.1 in the first set of three appeals and which is the appellant in the fourth appeal, filed two writ petitions in WP (C) Nos.10381 and 17920 of 2020 on the file of the High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam praying respectively for (i) setting aside an Order of the Committee of the Kalloorkad Gram Panchayat refusing to grant license to them for establishing a Hot Mix Plant; and (ii) for a declaration that by virtue of the certificate granted under the Kerala Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Facilitation Act, 2019,¹[For short, “Kerala MSME Act”], all licenses and approvals including the license of the Panchayat should be deemed to have been obtained.

3. By a common order dated 18.03.2021, the learned Judge of the High Court of Kerala disposed of both the writ petitions permitting the writ petitioners to prefer an application for permission under Rule 68 of the Kerala Panchayat Building Rules, 2019,²[For short, “Rules of 2019”] within two weeks and further directing the Secretary of the Panchayat to grant necessary permission subject to the conditions, if any, that may be imposed by the Panchayat. The learned Judge held that inasmuch as the writ petitioners had obtained consent from the State Pollution Control Board, the Secretary of the Panchayat cannot refuse permission under Rule 68 of the Rules, 2019, though he can impose general conditions.

4. Challenging the said order of the learned Judge, three intra-court appeals came to be filed. One of the intra-court appeals was filed by the writ petitioners themselves, as they were not satisfied with the outcome. The other writ appeals were filed by some people in the locality, who objected to the establishment of the Hot Mix Plant.

5. By a common order dated 09.12.2021, the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court dismissed the appeals. Therefore, people of the locality have come up with the first three appeals challenging the common order passed by the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court in the three intra-court appeals. The writ petitioners have also come up with one appeal, which is the fourth one, as they are aggrieved by not getting full relief from the High Court.

6. We have heard the learned counsel appearing for all the parties.

7. The controversy to be resolved in these appeals can be better understood if we take a glance at the brief facts leading to this litigation. These brief facts are as follows :

(i) George Elias and Associates, whom we shall describe as the writ petitioners, are engaged in undertaking road works in different parts of the State of Kerala. They purchased Hot Mix Plants for carrying out the road works for which they bagged contracts.

(ii) By an Agreement dated 06.03.2019, the writ petitioners were awarded the contract for road work in Cherthala Aroorkutty. Within a few months, the Kerala MSME Act came into force and hence the writ petitioners obtained what is known as an Acknowledgement Certificate under Section 5 of the said Act.

(iii) The writ petitioners also submitted an application to the Kalloorkad Panchayat for the grant of a license, for installation of the Hot Mix Plant. The application was made on 05.02.2020.

(iv) On 04.03.2020 the Kerala State Pollution Control Board granted “Consent to Establish”.

(v) Since there was no response from the Panchayat, to the application for license, the writ petitioners claimed the benefit of the deeming provision under Rule 12(3) of the Kerala Panchayat Raj (Issue of License to Factories, Trades, Entrepreneurship Activities and Other Services) Rules, 1996. Accordingly, the writ petitioners transported the equipments for installing the Hot Mix Plant, to the property from which they proposed to operate it.

(vi) Objections were raised by some members of the locality owing allegiance to some political parties which led to a meeting of conciliation. However, the Gram Panchayat rejected the application by an Order dated 12.05.2