Petitioner challenged the District Magistrate's order denying No Objection Certificate (NOC) for a petrol pump based on a Ministry circular regarding distance from other pumps. The High Court quashed the impugned order.
The order passed by the District Magistrate and Additional District Magistrate dated 26.6.2019 declining NOC is quashed.
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Court No. - 1
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 27960 of 2019
Petitioner :- Sachin Gupta Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Sunil Kumar Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Vikas Budhwar
Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha,J. Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.
Heard Sri Sunil Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri Vikas Budhwar, learned counsel for the respondent-corporation and learned Standing Counsel for the State respondents.
In this writ petition, the petitioner has questioned the legality and propriety of the order passed by the District Magistrate, Kasganj and Additional District Magistrate, Kasganj dated 26th June, 2019 declining no objection on the ground that as per the circular letter issued by the Road Transport and Highways Ministry dated 24.7.2013, the minimum distance between the two petrol pumps should be 300 meters.
The arguments advanced by learned counsel for the petitioner is that any guideline or circular letter is only having recommendatory effect and cannot be a binding effect, inasmuch as, the petrol pump not being on a national highway, the circular letter shall hardly have any bearing. He has further submitted that the Indian Road Congress, 2013 have also no statutory force and are only re-commendatory in nature and there is a series of judgments of this Court passed in regard thereto.
Learned counsel for the respondent-corporation has brought to our notice the judgment of the Division Bench of this Court in the case of Deepak Agarwal vs. State of U.P. & others passed in Writ-C No. 27184 of 2013 in which in ultimate paragraphs, this Court has clearly observed that these guidelines since do not have any statutory force, they cannot be put into service. Moreover, this Court has further observed that the Executive Engineer of the department concerned like Public Works Department do not enjoy any authority to issue any direction for the obtaining NOC as per IRC, 2013. The further argument has been advanced by learned counsel for the respondent-corporation that earlier in the case of Leela Dhar Gera vs. The Union of India & ors. the Division Bench deprecated the conduct of Engineer in Chief in issuing such circular letter for ensuring compliance of any such regulation with regard to the issuance of no objection certificate.
In view of the above, the order passed by the District Magistrate, Kasganj and Additional District Kasganj dated 26th June, 2019 annexed as annexure-5 to the writ petition, is hereby quashed.
The competent authorities are directed to reconsider the grant of no objection certificate within a period of six weeks from the date of production of a certified copy of this order.
The petition stands disposed of.
(Ajit Kumar, J.) (Ramesh Sinha, J.)
Order Date :- 26.8.2019
Shiraz
1 issue framed by the court
Whether guidelines/circular letters regarding minimum distance between petrol pumps can be binding on authorities for NOC issuance.
Colour shows how this judgement treated each authority
Deepak Agarwal vs. State of U.P. & othersRelied on¶8
Deepak Agarwal vs. State of U.P. & others, Writ-C No. 27184 of 2013
Leela Dhar Gera vs. The Union of India & ors.Referred¶8
Leela Dhar Gera vs. The Union of India & ors.
Sachin Gupta
State Of U.P.
Respondent-corporation
3 Others
Ramesh Sinha
Ajit Kumar
As recorded by the court registry
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