In this writ petition, though the petitioners sought several reliefs, the only one that was urged during the course of the arguments was for a declaration that in the absence of Gazette notification issued under Section 232 of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, the respondent Panchayat cannot insist that the petitioners should obtain licences under the Kerala Panchayat Raj (Issue of Licence to Dangerous and Offensive Trades and Factories) Rules, 1996 (hereinafter referred to as D & O Rules for short).

2. The facts of the case are that the petitioners are owners of poultry farms in respect of which, they have obtained Exts.P7 and P8 consent orders from the Kerala Pollution Control Board. They were informed that they should obtain licence under the D & O rules and thereupon they made applications, the receipt of which have been acknowledged by the Panchayat by Exts.P11 and P12. Thereafter, according to them, they realised that in the absence of Gazette notification issued under Section 232 of the Act, it was not a statutory requirement to obtain such licence and hence this writ petition was filed.

3. After the filing of the writ petition, Panchayat states that they have issued Ext.R3(f) proceedings of the Secretary rejecting the applications made by the petitioners for licence. However, since the petitioners assert that they did not have the obligation to obtain the licence, I proceed to consider the arguments raised.

4. The relevant provision of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, which was pressed into service is Section 232. This section provides that the Village Panchayat may notify that no place in the Panchayat area shall be used for any of the purposes specified in the rules made in this behalf, being purposes which in the opinion of the Government are, likely to be offensive or dangerous to human life or health or property, without a licence issued by the Secretary and except in accordance with the conditions specified in such License. The Government have in exercise of their powers conferred by Sections 232, 233 and 234 of the Act framed the D & O Rules. In the schedule to the D & O Rules, the Government have specified the matters which in its opinion are likely to be offensive and dangerous to human life, health or property. Among the various items included in the schedule, poultry has been included at Sl.No.130.

5. Rule 3 of the Kerala Panchayat Raj (Manner of Publication of Notification or Notice) Rules, 1996 provides that save as otherwise expressly provided in the Act or the Rules made thereunder, every notification issued under the provisions of the Act shall be published in the Government Gazette. The proviso to the said rule states that the Government shall have power to direct that any such notification shall, instead of being published in the Gazette, be published in any other manner specified by them.

6. Counsel for the Panchayat would concede to the position that Panchayat has not published any notification in the Government Gazette. However, it is argued that a notification in the Government Gazette is not necessary for the implementation of the provisions contained in Section 232 of the Act and the D & O Rules framed thereunder.

7. Though the argument of the learned counsel for the petitioner that a Gazette notification is under Section 232 of the Act is essential to implement D & O Rules, would appear to be attractive at the first blush, on a closer examination, it can be seen that the same is devoid of any merit. True under Section 232, a notification has to be issued and by virtue of the provisions contained in the Panchayat Raj (Manner of Publication of Notification or Notice) Rules, 1996, such publication, unless otherwise provided, should be in the Government Gazette.

8. Rule 4 of the D & O Rules provides as follows:

Publication of notification regarding dangerous and offensive trades:-The Village Panchayat may, by affixing notices in the notice board of the Offices of the Panchayat and in conspicuous