The court held that a legally constructed facility for waste management does not obstruct the access rights of property owners.

JUDGMENT

The above writ petition is filed with following prayers : I) “Issue a writ of mandamus, or any other appropriate writ, order, or direction, directing the 1st and 2nd respondents to demolish and remove the illegal construction erected by the 3rd respondent in front of the petitioner’s property, obstructing ingress and egress.

II) Declare that the 3rd respondent has no right to construct any structure obstructing the petitioner’s property or road frontage of the property.

III) Direct the 2nd respondent to take immediate action based on Exhibit-P3 representation and remove the illegal construction.

IV) Grant such other reliefs as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper in the interest of justice.

V) Dispense with the filing of translation of vernacular documents. “ [sic]

2. The main prayer in this writ petition is to issue direction to respondent Nos. 1 and 2 to demolish and remove the illegal construction allegedly erected by the 3^rd respondent. The 3^rd respondent in this writ petition is the Haritha Karma Sena, Kudumbasree CDS Office, Varavur Grama Panchayat.

3. A counter affidavit is filed by the respondents.

It will be better to extract the relevant portion of the above counter affidavit.

4. “It is submitted that the allegation of the petitioner is without any substance or factual correlation. It is submitted that for the purpose of storing, before transportation of the degradable waste to the main MCF, the waste collected is temporarily stored in mini MCFs, and for that purpose, the Panchayat has erected mini MCFs on the property belonging to the Panchayat. It is submitted that mini MCF was erected on the purambokku land owned by the Panchayat. It is submitted that it in no way affects the ingress and egress of the petitioner to his property

5. It is submitted that the mini MCF is erected in 3.5 meters whereas the width of the road is 14.30 meters, and more than 10 meters of open space was left while constructing the mini MCF.

6. It is submitted that in terms of the directives and scheme of the State Government, the Panchayat is to establish the waste collection centers on the land owned by the Panchayat, and it is in terms of the directives issued by the Government that the mini MCF was erected without causing any injury or obstruction to the petitioner or any one.

7. It is submitted that in terms of Section 169 of the Panchayat Ra]. Act, the purambokku vests with the Panchayat and Going by Section 279 (3) of the Act, the Panchayat is entitled to utilize the purambokku land for its purposes.

8. It is submitted that this Honorable Court has issued various directives to take prompt steps for disposal of the waste, and that the 3rd respondent, Haritha Karma Sena, is collecting the waste from the houses, and the non- degradable waste is transported to-Clean Kerala Company. 9. It is submitted that the waste collected in the mini MCF is transported to the main MCF and from there it is cleared by the clean Kerala Company. It is submitted that the mini MCF is constructed on the property belonging to the Panchayat and is linked to implementing the Clean Kerala Project. It is submitted that the disposal of the waste is a statutory obligation of the Panchayat in terms of the provisions contained in the Panchayat Raj Act .”

4. From the above, it is clear that for the purpose of storing before transportation of the degradable waste to the main MCF, the waste collected is temporarily stored in mini MCFs. It is also submitted that the waste collected in a mini MCF is transported to the main MCF and from there, it is cleared by the Clean Kerala Company. It is also submitted that mini MCF is constructed on the property belonging to the Panchayat and it is linked to implementing the Clean Kerala Project. The counsel for the petitioner relied the judgment of this Court in Elsy Abraha