ORDER

Heard Mr. Ashok Mohanty, learned senior counsel for the petitioner and Mr. S.K. Mishra, learned counsel for opposite party nos. 1 and 2, the State Pollution Control Board.

The petitioner in this writ petition challenges the show-cause notice issued under Section 33(A) of the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 (for short “the Act, 1974”) and refusal of consent to operate the petitioner-hotel at Annexure-5.

The case of the writ petitioner is that he is a hotelier and operating since 2003 and discharging sewage to the public sewage and now connected to Sewage Treatment Plant at Mangalaghat and discharging the sewage in conformity with the standard prescribed under Schedule –VI of the Environment (Protection) Rules applicable to the Hotel Industry. The refusal to grant consent to the petitioner in spite of the required fee paid by him could not have been made by the State Pollution Control Board. Consequently, he could not have been directed to show-cause to close his hotel in question by the State Pollution Control Board at Annexure-5.

The aforesaid has been countered by the State Pollution Control Board indicating therein that the hotel of the petitioner has been