The main legal point established in the judgment is the court's direction to the District Collector to consider the appeal petition and pass orders on merits and in accordance with law.

T.S. Sivagnanam, J.

1. Heard Mr. Vijaya Narayan, learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner; Mr. R. Ravichandran, learned Additional Government Pleader for the 1st respondent; Mr. R. Rajeswaran, learned Special Government Pleader for respondents 2 & 3; Mr. V. Anandhamoorthy, learned counsel for the 4th respondent; Mr. D. Gopal, learned counsel for the 5th respondent and Mr. S.K. Rameshwar, learned counsel for the 6th respondent and with the consent of the learned counsel on either side, the writ petition itself is taken up for final disposal.

2. The petitioner seeks to quash the proceedings issued by the 1st respondent dated 03.06.2015. This proceeding is not an order but only a show cause notice calling upon the petitioner as to why action should not be taken to lock and seal. The petitioner's factory which is engaged in manufacture of packaged drinking water.

3. Elaborate submissions have been made by the learned counsel on either side and several documents have been placed before this Court in the form of typed set of papers. However, the issue involved in this writ petition is lies in a narrow campus.

4. The challenge in the impugned notice is to primarily on the ground that the 1st respondent is attempting to foreclose the right of the petitioner to prosecute his appeal filed on 01.07.2015 before the 2nd respondent, District Collector, Tiruppur challenging the order dated 02.06.2015 passed by the 1st respondent. It is not in dispute that the said appeal is still pending before the District Collector and orders have not been passed.

5. The learned Additional Government Pleader appearing for the 1st respondent submitted that the appeal has been rejected and to support his submission, he has referred to a proceedings of the Assistant Director (Panchayats), Tiruppur dated 26.06.2015 in Na.Ka. No. 1755/2015/A3. On perusal of the said communication, it is seen that it is the proceedings of the Assistant Director (Panchayats), Tiruppur and not an order passed by the District Collector. That apart, it has not been addressed to the petitioner company and in fact, it is a reply given to from LN.P. Arumugam Mani, District Governor Lions Club, Tiruppur for his letter dated 04.06.2015. Therefore, this Court is not inclined to accept the submission of the learned counsel for the 1st respondent that the appeal filed by the petitioner has already been rejected.

6. Having held that the appeal is now pending before the District Collector for consideration, it has to be seen as to whether the merits of the matter have to be gone into at this juncture.

7. The learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner has drawn the attention of this Court to the communication of the 1st respondent dated 06.05.2015, in and by which, the 1st respondent informed the Managing Director of the petitioner that the following requirements are required to be fulfilled by them to establish the packaged drinking water unit, failing which, action would be initiated for locking and sealing the unit by exercising powers under Section 222 of the District Municipalities Act, 1994. The requirements which are to be complied with by the petitioner as stated in the communication dated 06.05.2015 of the 1st respondent is as follows:

8. It is the submission of the learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner that out of the 7 requirements, the petitioner has complied with 5 and with regard to the requirement for production of No Objection Certificate from the Pollution Control Board, it is the submission of the learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner that in the light of the interim orders granted by the National Green Tribunal, in its order dated 29.04.2015, consent is deemed to have been granted since the National Green Tribunal is monitoring the matter not only that of the petitioner unit, but nearly 900 such units and the National Green Tribunal has permitted the petitioner to extract ground water subject to certain stringent conditions. With regard to the other requirement which