The State government has directed local bodies not to insist on production of sanitation certificates along with applications seeking to renew dangerous and offensive (D&O) licence following the Advocate General’s legal opinion in this regard.
The legal opinion has been given in the backdrop of a Kerala High Court Division Bench’s verdict directing to ensure that no application for renewal of licence is refused merely for the reason that it is not accompanied by sanitation certificates. According to the legal opinion, there is no necessity to file an appeal against a Division Bench’s verdict as it has only asserted “the scope of the circular” which did not mandate production of sanitation certificate at the time of receipt of application for renewal of the D&O licence.
The judgment came on a petition filed by the Kerala Vyapari Vayvasayi Ekopana Samithi, Ernakulam dstrict unit. The Bench has, however, made it clear that the directions do not take away the statutory and executive responsibility of the officers concerned to act in conformity with the requirement of inspection as directed by the circular.
As per the circular issued by the government, the local bodies have been asked to conduct field inspection by the health inspectors on the applications for renewal of licences. The petitioner’s allegation was that the local bodies were insisting on sanitation certificate as a pre-condition for the acceptance of applications for renewal of licence and that the Municipalities Act and the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and Rules did not provide for production the sanitation certificate.
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