The administrative authority must provide valid reasons when denying building permit renewals; due process requires consideration of petitioner's circumstances.

JUDGMENT

The above writ petition is filed with the following prayers:

“i) To call for the records of leading to issuance of Ext P8 and Ext P9 communication and quash or set aside the same after declaring it as illegal and irregular in law, in the interest of justice.

ii) Issue Writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate direction, order, directing the 1st respondent, Secretary of the Grama Panchayat to issue partial occupancy certificate and building number to the completed portion of the building, in terms of the completion certificate and the plan of completed construction, within a time frame fixed by this Hon’ble Court.

iii) To declare that the petitioner entitled to get deemed occupancy in terms of the Kerala Panchayat Building Rules 2019 and entitled get the occupancy certificate in the physical form itself, in the interest of justice.

iv) Issue Writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate direction, order, directing the 1st respondent Panchayath to renew the building permit for completing the construction of remaining part of the building.

v) issue any other writ, order or direction this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper to the nature and circumstance of this case.

vi) To issue other appropriate order to directions dispensing with the filing of English translation of the vernacular documents produced along with the writ petition.”

(SIC)

2. The petitioner is the owner, title holder and in possession of 9.31 Ares of dry land property in survey No.414/1/9 of Karumalloor Village within the territorial limits of 1^st respondent Grama Panchayat is the submission. The petitioner is a house wife and she applied for a building permit for constructing a residential house in the above said property during the year 2015. The 1^st respondent after verifying the documents and inspecting the property, granted the building permit as per building permit No.A2- 1267/bp/234/2014-2015 dated 17.08.2015 is the further submission. Though the permit was obtained, due to some financial constraints, the petitioner could not complete the construction and the permit was further renewed is the further submission. Still the petitioner was not able to finish the construction due to various reasons and Ext.P2 building permit was valid only upto 15.08.2021. Again the building permit was renewed before the expiry of permit, but unfortunately the copy of the permit renewed was lost from the petitioner irrecoverably is the submission. Upon submission of the request for certified copy of the above said lost document, the office of the Panchayat informed the petitioner that the file is missing in the Panchayat also due to the flood havoc that submerged the entire Karumalloor Panchayat is the submission. Hence the petitioner further applied for the renewal of permit on 05.03.2024. In spite of all the earnest effort to complete the construction, she was not in a position to complete the construction in full as per the approved plan is the submission. However, the petitioner completed 80 m2 out of the total floor area permit 184.37 m2 and decided to apply for partial occupancy in terms of the completed area. The officials from the Panchayat upon the receipt of the plan of the completed portion of the building and completion certificate visited the spot and issued a communication as evident by Ext.P9. Aggrieved by the same, this Writ Petition is filed.

3. Heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, the Standing Counsel for the Panchayat and also the counsel appearing for Additional respondent No.3.

4. This Court perused Ext.P9 notice. The only reason for rejecting the renewal application is that the petitioner has not renewed the earlier license. No other reason is mentioned in Ext.P9. According to the petitioner, she renewe