'Residential Area' Designated As Per Local Law Cannot Be Interpreted To Mean 'Residential House': Kerala High Court

In a recent decision by the Kerala High Court, a single judge bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas noted that “the term 'residential area designated as per local laws' cannot be interpreted to mean a 'residential house'.

The Court was seized of pleas challenging the permission granted for establishing a Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. petroleum retail outlet, which were dismissed for want of merit.

The Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. granted a letter of intent to Smt. Prasannakumari (the licensee) to open a petroleum retail outlet in Kollam district. Consent to establish the outlet was obtained from the Pollution Control Board along with a No Objection Certificate from the District Administration. Additionally, the licensee also obtained approval and a building permit for construction, all of which were being challenged in the writ petition.

It was submitted that the NOC and the consent issued did not adhere to the distance limit from the nearby residence and this was not considered by the authorities.

It was argued that the plan, the site approval, and the building permit were also being challenged on the grounds that the proposed retail outlet of the licensee did not satisfy the distance criteria specified by the Central Pollution Control Board.

Petitioner argued that the 'residential area designated as per local laws' provided in the guidelines would need to be interpreted as including a 'residential house', and as such the distance requirements had not been adhered to in this case.

The court referred to the decision in Indian Oil Corporation Limited v. BR Menon and Ors. (2022) to maintain that petroleum retail outlets do not fall within the consent management system regime.

It was held that in the case of the guidelines issued by the Pollution Control Board, the provisions stated that the only stipulation required is a distance of 30 meters from the nearby designated residential area as per local laws.

The court further stated that a residential house built on a property by itself may not be a negative component in establishing a retail outlet unless the area where the residential house is situated falls within a designated residential area.

In view of the above, the term 'residential area designated as per local laws' cannot be interpreted to mean 'a residential house' it held.

As such, the writ petition was dismissed.

Counsel for Petitioner: Advocates R Lakshmi Narayan, Abdul Salim, Govindaswamy TC, Renuka MR, Nishitha Balachandran and Sudhir Kumar B.

Counsel for Respondent: Advocate K Amminikutty, KP Satheesan, Vinoy Varghese Kallumoottil, T Naveen, Harikumar, Gopikrishnan Nambiar, John Mathai, Joson Manavalan, Kuryan Thomas, Paulose Abraham, Raja Kannan, P Mohandas, K Sudhinkumar, SK Adithyan, Sabu Pullan, Gokul Sudhakaran, Sandra Sunny, Arun Kumar MA, Nayanpally Ramola

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Ker) 37

Case Title: Kaleshkumar KK v. State of Kerala & ors.

Case Number: WP(C) No. 11578 of 2022

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