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 E