ORDER

In this petition, petitioners seek the following reliefs:

“a) Issue a writ of certiorari or any other appropriate writ or order quashing the Order bearing No. KUPLA/Authority-Meeting/44/2021-22 dated: 2nd July 2021 issued by Respondent No.3 produced herein as Annexure-

A;

b) Issue a writ of mandamus or in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction thereby directing the respondent No.2 to give necessary consent to respondent No.3 to grant “Commercial Building License Approval” to petitioner application dated: 26th March 2021, copy of the application dated 26th March 2021, is produced herein as Annexure-B.

c) Pass any other appropriate writ, order or direction as the Hon’ble Court deems fit to grant, under the circumstances of the case, in the interest of justice.”

2. Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned counsel for the respondents and perused the material on record.

3. The material on record discloses that the 3rd petitioner is the owner of the subject land bearing Sy.Nos.107, 108, 103/1, 103/2 and 103/3 situated at Kushalnagar, Kodagu District. The 3rd petitioner leased out the subject land in favour of the 1st petitioner, which is a fuel importing company having approval from Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organization to establish Auto LPG dispensation station, pursuant to which, the 1st petitioner submitted an application to the Deputy Commissioner for No Objection Certificate, which was issued on 07.01.2021. The 1st petitioner appointed the 2nd petitioner as a dealer to run / manage the aforesaid Auto LPG dispensation centre vide Dealership Agreement dated 23.02.2021.

4. The 3rd petitioner – Land owner submitted an application dated 26.03.2021 to the 3rd respondent – Kushalanagar Planning Authority (KPA) for grant of building licence approval. By the impugned order dated 02.07.2021, the 3rd respondent rejected the application submitted by the petitioners. So also, pursuant to a request submitted by the petitioners for reconsideration of their request for setting up Auto LPG Dispensing Station, the 3rd respondent issued an endorsement dated 25.03.2024 reiterating the earlier rejection dated 02.07.2021 and as such, the petitioners are before this Court by way of the present petition.

5. The 3rd respondent have filed their statement of objections interalia contending that as per the Zoning Regulations issued under the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act in relation to Master Plan 2031, which is in force, the subject lands are situated in a residential zone, in which setting up or establishment of a Auto LPG dispensing station is not provided and as such, the 3rd respondent was fully justified in passing the impugned order dated 02.07.2021 and issuing the impugned endorsement dated 25.03.2024 rejecting the request of the petitioners, whose claim in the present petition was liable to be rejected.

6. Before adverting to the rival contentions it would be necessary to extract permissible uses for plots situated in the residential zone by the Kushalnagar Planning Authority in terms of the Zoning Regulations under the Master Plan 2031, which are as under:

“1. RESIDENTIAL ZONE.

a. Permissible uses for plots.

i) All kinds of residential developments, Dwelling units / tenements, Plotted residential developments, villas, semidetached houses, apartments, hostels, multi-dwelling housing, group housing, service apartments.

ii) KPTCL Counters, Milk Booths, HOPCOM Centers.

iii) Medical shop, Flour mill with power up to 5HP, coffee grinding works, tailoring shop, hair cutting saloon, beauty parlor, laundry, dry cleaning and ATMs, STD booths, mobile phone service repairs.

iv) Bus Shelters, P & T Offices.

v) Park, Open Space, Playgrounds, Public &

Semi-Public Uses, Roads and Commercial uses in the layout plan as specified in the subdivision regulations.

vi) Neighborhood or convenience shops built up area limited to 20 Sq.m.

vii) Fuel storage depots, filing stations, LPG godown (as per Govt. Order No.na ah