The governing authority must apply the correct statutory building rules—specifically the Kerala Panchayat Building Rules, 2019, for land within panchayat jurisdiction—rather than applying municipal regulations to determine the necessity of a defence establishment NOC.

JUDGMENT

The above Writ Petition (C) is filed with the following prayers:

"i. Issue a Writ of Certiorari, or any other appropriate Writs, Orders or direction, to call for the records leading to Exhibit P14 and to quash the same.

ii. Issue a Writ of Mandamus, or any other appropriate Writ, Orders or direction commanding the 3rd respondent to issue No Objection Certificate to the petitioners for the construction being done as expeditiously as possible at any rate within a time frame to be fixed by this Hon’ble Court, or iii. To issue a Writ to declare that the No Objection Certificate from the defence establishment is not required in the case of the construction being made by the petitioners.

iv. To dispense with the production of English Translation of Malayalam Exhibits produced along with the Writ Petition in the interest of justice;

v. Render such other orders as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case. "

[SIC]

2. The petitioners are the owners of a small parcel of land having an extent of 8 cents in Aluva East village, within the jurisdiction of Edathala Grama Panchayath. They had applied for a building permit for construction of a three storied building, which was sanctioned as per Ext.P3. Once the structure was completed, the petitioners decided to put up an additional floor, and submitted an application for revised permit, as evident from Ext.P4. However, the Panchayat suspended the building permit itself is the submission. Thereafter, they directed the petitioners to obtain an NOC from the 3^rd respondent for constructing the building within 500 meters from the defence establishment. It is the case of the petitioners that the respondents 3 and 4 had proceeded as if the construction in an area governed by the Kerala Municipality Building Rules, 2019 (for short ‘KMBR, 2019’) . According to the petitioner, the construction is in an area where the provisions of the Kerala Panchayat Building Rules, 2019 (for short ‘KPBR, 2019’) applies. Therefore, it is submitted that NOC is not required in the light of Rule 80 of the KPBR, 2019, because the petitioners proposed construction is not a high-rise building. Thereafter, a stop memo was issued as evident by Ext.P7, and consequently, the application was rejected as evident by Ext.P13. Aggrieved by the same, this writ petition is filed.

3. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners, the learned DSGI and the learned Standing Counsel appearing for the Panchayat.

4. The short point raised by the petitioners is that, the Rule that is applicable is KPBR, 2019, and the authorities relied the KMBR, 2019. According to the petitioner Rule 80 of KPBR, 2019 is applicable. The petitioner also relied the judgment of this Court in C.M. Dinesh Mani v. State of Kerala and Others [2015(3) KHC 957]. Paragraph Nos.17 and 18 are relied by the petitioner, and the same is extracted hereunder:

“17. One another contention urged is non compliance of the guidelines issued by NBC. NBC guidelines itself indicates that it is non statutory in nature, whereas it is for general application. It is for the respective State Governments to either decide to incorporate any provisions in the NBC as applicable to their building rules or to modify such provisions or to incorporate the same with such modifications as may be required in a particular State, as the case may be. Therefore, non adherence to the guidelines issued under the NBC cannot be a reason for setting aside KMBR, 2013. In fact Rule 3B of KMBR, 1999 has been incorporated by way of an amendment as per SRO 591/2010 dated 21/6/2010, which reads as under;

“3B: Application of National Building Code of IndiaWhereever the provisions of the National buildings Code are mentioned in these rules, the provisions of the code in force shall