Compliance with construction permits is necessary for deemed occupancy under the Kerala Panchayat Building Rules, entitling the appellant to due process before any enforcement actions.

JUDGMENT

MURALEE KRISHNA, J The petitioner in W.P.(C)No.32532 of 2023 filed this writ appeal under Section 5 (i) of the Kerala High Court Act , 1958, challenging the judgment dated 10.10.2025 passed by the learned Single Judge in that writ petition.

2. Going by the averments in the writ petition, the appellant is the owner in possession of 7.955 cents of land in Narakkal Village, which she purchased in the year 2002, as evident from Ext.P1 tax receipt. For the purpose of constructing a residential house, she obtained Ext.P2 building permit from the 2^nd respondent. Pursuant to the grant of a building permit, the appellant completed the construction without any violation of the Building Rules and submitted the completion plan and application for issuance of an occupancy certificate as per Exhibit P4 on 05.06.2023. As per the Kerala Panchayat Building Rules , the secretary is bound to issue the occupancy certificate within 15 days from the date of receipt of the completion certificate, which expired on 20.06.2023. The 2^nd respondent has at no point in time issued any letter in the said period pointing out any defect in the completion certificate, and hence she is entitled to obtain a deemed occupancy certificate. In the decision reported in Hamza Haji S.K. v. Payyannur Municipality [2018 (4) KHC 30], this Court held that if a completion certificate is submitted by the owner of the building and the same is not issued by the Municipality within 15 days from the date of receipt of the completion certificate, the owner will secure a deemed occupancy certificate. But even after the lapse of 3 months, the occupancy certificate has not been issued. Hence, the appellant is entitled to obtain a deemed occupancy certificate and to get her building numbered after assessing the property tax. Hence, the appellant filed W.P(C)No.32532 of 2023 under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking the following reliefs:

“i. Issue a writ of mandamus directing the 2^nd respondent to issue occupancy certificate pursuant to Ext.P4 application, to the building constructed by the petitioner and assign building number after assessing the tax.

ii. Call for the records relating to Ext.P5 letter issued by the 2^nd respondent and issue a writ of certiorari or any other appropriate writ for quashing the same.

iii. Declare that the petitioner is entitled to get occupancy certificate as per the proviso to sub Rule 3 of Rule 25 of the Kerala Panchayat Building Rules 2011.”

3. The respondents filed a counter affidavit dated

18.11.2023 in the writ petition opposing the reliefs sought by the appellant and producing therewith Exts.R1(a) to R1(i) documents.

To that counter affidavit, the appellant filed a reply affidavit dated 26.11.2024, producing therewith Exts.P6 to P9 documents. The 3^rd respondent filed a counter affidavit dated 17.08.2024, producing therewith Exts.R3(a) to R3(d) documents and an additional counter affidavit dated 07.12.2024, producing therewith Exts.R3(e) and R3(f) documents.

4. The learned Single Judge by the impugned judgment dated 10.10.2025 disposed of the writ petition along with three other connected writ petitions. Paragraph 17 and the last paragraph of the judgment read thus:

“17. Though the petitioner (Smt.Mini Benny) claimed that she is entitled for a deemed occupancy, after submitting necessary application for issuance of an occupancy certificate, certain defects were notified and the petitioner corrected it and resubmitted the application. Thereafter, the petitioner on being informed that there are certain defects, submitted a written communication to the respondent Panchayat that the d