V. Giri, J.

The State has come up in appeal challenging the judgment of the learned single Judge, in which a direction has been issued to the respondents in the Writ Petition to consider the writ petitioners eligibility for an FL3 licence for the year 2001-2002 and for renewal for subsequent years, inter alia, with reference to the law laid down by a Bench of this court in B. Six Holiday Resorts (P) Ltd. v State of Kerala (2003 (1) KLT 984). The appellants contend that there is no warrant to direct the writ petitioners eligibility to be considered with reference to the rules prevailing in 2001 i.e. 112.2001, when the writ petitioner had filed Ext.P1 application for an FL3 licence. It is contended that since admittedly the rules were amended with effect from 20.2.2002 and the petitioner would not be eligible under the amended rules, the application was considered and rejected as per Ext.P4 finding that only hotels with 3 star classification are currently eligible for FL3 licence. But since the petitioners hotel did not have 3 star classification, his application was rightly rejected.

2. It is the contention of the writ petitioner that he had submitted an application for FL3