Kallara Biju vs State Of Kerala
2021 Latest Caselaw 14795 Ker

                 IN THE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM
                                    PRESENT
                 THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SHAJI P.CHALY
        THURSDAY, THE 15TH DAY OF JULY 2021 / 24TH ASHADHA, 1943
                            WP(C) NO. 2317 OF 2017
PETITIONER:
              KALLARA BIJU, AGED 45 YEARS
              S/O.MUHAMMED HANEEFA, S.S.HOUSE, KALLARA,
              MEMBER WARD NO.IV, THAPASAGIRI, KALLARA GRAMA PANCHAYAT,
              KALLARA P.O., THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

              BY ADVS.
              SRI.S.SHANAVAS KHAN
              SMT.S.INDU


RESPONDENTS:
     1     STATE OF KERALA
           REPRESENTED BY ITS PRINCIPAL SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT,
           LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT, GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT,
           THIRUVANANTHAPURAM-695001

    2         THE DIRECTOR OF PANCHAYAT
              DIRECTORATE OF PANCHAYAT, MUSEUM (P.O), THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

    3         THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF PANCHAYAT
              OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF PANCHAYAT, CIVIL STATION,
              KUDAPANAKUNNU P.O., THIRUVANANTHAPURAM-695005

    4         THE KALLARA GRAMA PANCHAYAT
              KALLARA P.O.,THIRUVANANTHAPURAM-695608,
              REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY

    5         THE SECRETARY
              KALLARA GRAMA PANCHAYAT, KALLARA P.O.,
              THIRUVANANTHAPURAM-695608

    6         THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER
              KERALA WATER AUTHORITY, ARUVIKKARA, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

              BY ADVS.
              SMT.P.USHAKUMARI

              R1 TO 3 -SRI.SURIN GEORGE IPE,SENIOR GOVERNMENT PLEADER
              R4 & R5 SRI.SIVAN MADATHIL


     THIS     WRIT   PETITION   (CIVIL)   HAVING   COME   UP   FOR   ADMISSION   ON
15.07.2021, THE COURT ON THE SAME DAY DELIVERED THE FOLLOWING:
     WP(C) NO. 2317 OF 2017

                                         2



                                    JUDGMENT

This writ petition is filed by the petitioner,

a member of the Kallara Grama Panchayath,

Thiruvananthapuram District, representing Ward

No.IV.

2. The case projected by the petitioner was

that, petitioner is facing serious scarcity of

drinking water due to high altitude and more than

300 families belonging to the lower strata of the

society are victims of the same. It was taking into

account the severe dearth of drinking water, Grama

Sabha was convened during the year 2014-15 and

decided to prepare a drinking water supply project

and placed the same before the District Planning

Committee (DPC), Thiruvananthapuram, for approval

and accordingly the DPC granted approval to the

Project. After obtaining approval form DPC, the

matter was placed before the 6th respondent i.e. WP(C) NO. 2317 OF 2017

Executive Engineer, Kerala Water Authority,

Aruvikkara, Thiruvananthapuram, who is the

implementing officer for and on behalf of the

Kerala Water Authority.

3. The grievance of the petitioner is that,

inspite of all earnest efforts made, the 6 th

respondent has not taken any action to implement

the same. Eventhough the subject issue was placed

before the successive Grama Sabhas, it was

unanimously decided to implement the Project and

accordingly financial and administrative sanction

was given by the Panchayath, however the Panchayath

and the Secretary are purposefully protracting the

matter.

4. The case putforth by the petitioner further

is that, the ultimate intention of the Panchayath

is to see that, the Project does not work out and

for achieving the said illegal object, the Water

Project was included in the agenda of the meeting WP(C) NO. 2317 OF 2017

held on 13.01.2017 and accordingly nullify the

project and has passed Ext.P14 resolution, which is

impugned in this writ petition.

5. The paramount contention advanced by the

petitioner is that, the Panchayath has taken a

decision to modify the Water Supply Project after a

period of three months from the decision taken for

implementing the Project to which the Panchayath

has given the financial sanction and therefore the

decision taken by the Grama Panchayath is not in

accordance with the provisions of the The Kerala

Panchayat Raj (Procedure for Panchayat Meeting)

Rules, 1995.

6. Other contentions are also raised by the

petitioner to justify the filing of the writ

petition invoking Article 226 of the Constitution

of India, since according to the petitioner, the

entire conduct and action of the panchayath

authorities are arbitrary and illegal.

WP(C) NO. 2317 OF 2017

7. At the same time learned counsel for the

petitioner has today submitted that, the Secretary

of the Panchayath has filed a detailed statement on

06.04.2018, in which the submissions made by the

petitioner in the writ petition are virtually

admitted and the Panchayath has taken a decision to

proceed with the implementation of the Project.

Therefore it was submitted that, petitioner would

be satisfied if the said aspects stated by the

Panchayath in the statement is recorded and the

writ petition is disposed of accordingly. Paragraph

5, 6 and 7 of the statement are as follows:-

"5. The panchayath is always ready and willing to implement the Project as per the rules and regulations, and there is no intention to cancel the project. As admitted by the petitioner DPS is already approved the Project. But as a matter of fact the 4th ward of Panchayath Thapasagiri, the number of SC/ST members were only limited in numbers and considering the acute shortage of drinking water in that area, in addition to the SC/ST members/families the 4th respondent Panchayath also considered the possibility of providing drinking water connection to the other beneficiaries also without altering or modifying the earlier project. To get the consent for this, the 5th respondent Secretary sought clarification/permission from the 3rd respondent, Deputy Director of Panchayath. However in response to the clarification WP(C) NO. 2317 OF 2017

sought by the Panchayath dated 05.07.2017 and 01.02.2018 the 3rd respondent vide his reply dated 20.02.2018 informed the Panchayath that the project cannot be amended so as to extend the benefit of giving water connection to the other community than SC/ST.

6. Hence the contention of the petitioner that the Panchayath amended or modified the decision arrived in Exhibit P9 is not factually correct. In addition to the above stated facts, any projects for implementation the Panchayath has to consider the instructions/guidelines issued by the Government and the Panchayath can only act upon based on these instructions/directions. However the 6th respondent contrary to the list of beneficiaries given by the Panchayath additional connections were provided taking into consideration of the list of beneficiaries supplied by the petitioner. Hence the additional expenditure incurred for this the Panchayath has already taken a decision to conduct an enquiry by the Vigilance Department.

7. The other contention of the petitioner is that the 4th respondent Panchayath council meeting held on 31.01.2017 it was decided to modify/amend the Thapasagiri Project which was already approved by the DPC on 07.11.2016. But at the same time the petitioner admitted that the 1st respondent state issued guidelines as per Exhibit P15. Whereas in Exhibit P15 guidelines in the class 2(8) it is sated that "..........................". Taking note of this clause in the proposed project of the Thapasagiri Water Project certain modifications (regarding the list of beneficiaries and the mode of implementation) were suggested by the council meeting held on 13.12.2017. Misinterpreting this decision the petitioner along with other 5 members submitted dissenting note as per Exhibit P13."

8. After having heard learned counsel for the

petitioner Sri.S.Shanavan Khan, learned Senior WP(C) NO. 2317 OF 2017

Government Pleader Sri. Surin George Ipe and

Adv. Sivan Madathil appearing for the Grama

Panchayath, this writ petition is disposed of

recording that, the relief sought for by the

petitioner in regard to the modification of the

minutes of the Grama Panchayath is now not in

existence in view of the decision taken by the

Grama Panchayath, to proceed with the

implementation of the Water Supply Project.

Sd/-

SHAJI P.CHALY JUDGE hmh WP(C) NO. 2317 OF 2017

APPENDIX OF WP(C) 2317/2017

PETITIONER EXHIBITS

EXHIBIT P1 TRUE COPY OF THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE GRAMA SABHA HELD ON 11.6.2015

EXHIBIT P2 TRUE COPY OF THE RELEVANT PAGE OF THE MINUTES OF THE GRAMA SABHA HELD ON 7.2.2016 WITH REGARD TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WATER SUPPLY SCHEME AND THE LIST OF BENEFICIARIES

EXHIBIT P3 TRUE COPY OF THE RESOLUTION DATED 16.7.2015 OF THE 4TH RESPONDENT GRAMA PANCHAYAT

EXHIBIT P4 TRUE COPY OF THE COMMUNICATION DATED 16.7.2015 OF THE FIFTH RESPONDENT

EXHIBIT P5 TRUE COPY OF THE RESOLUTION NO.III(9) OF THE 4TH RESPONDENT DATED 23.7.2015

EXHIBIT P6 TRUE COPY OF THE COMMUNICATION DATED 23.7.2015 OF THE 5TH RESPONDENT TO 6TH RESPONDENT TOGETHER WITH LIST OF BENEFICIARIES

EXHIBIT P7 TRUE COPY OF THE RELEVANT PAGE OF THE MINUTES OF THE GRAMA SABHA HELD ON 7.7.2016

EXHIBIT P8 TRUE COPY OF THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING DATED 17.12.2016 OF THE 4TH RESPONDENT GRAMA PANCHAYAT

EXHIBIT P9 TRUE COPY OF THE MINUTES OF MEETING DATED 24.11.2016 OF THE 4TH RESPONDENT

EXHIBIT P10 TRUE COPY OF THE LIST OF PROJECTS WP(C) NO. 2317 OF 2017

APPROVED BY DPC

EXHIBIT P11 TRUE COPY OF THE GOVERNMENT ORDER DATED 2.11.2016 OF THE 1ST RESPONDENT

EXHIBIT P12 TRUE COPY OF THE COMMUNICATION DATED 20.12.2016 OF THE DISTRICT PLANNING OFFICER

EXHIBIT P13 TRUE COPY OF TEH DISSENTING NOTE DATED 13.1.2017 SUBMITTED BY PETITIONER AND OTHERS

EXHIBIT P14 TRUE COPY OF THE RESOLUTION NO.III(4) DATED 13.1.2017 OF THE 4TH RESPONDENT GRAMA PANCHAYAT

EXHIBIT P15 TRUE COPY OF THE ORDER DATED 7.1.2017 OF THE FIRST RESPONDENT

EXHIBIT P16 TRUE COPY OF THE REPRESENTATION DATED 13.1.2017 SUBMITTED BEFORE THE FIFTH RESPONDENT

EXHIBIT P17 TRUE COPY OF THE REPRESENTATION DATED 13.1.2017 SUBMITTED BEFORE 1ST RESPONDENT

EXHIBIT P18 TRUE COPY OF THE REPRESENTATION DATED 13.1.2017 SUBMITTED BEFORE 2ND RESPONDENT

EXHIBIT P19 TRUE COPY OF THE MINUTES DATED 26.9.2016 IN WHICH THE PROJECT IS INCLUDED AS ITEM NO.20

PETITIONER EXHIBITS : NIL