Chief Engineer (Technical Services) vs A.A.Poulose

Shaji P.Chaly,J

Captioned review petition is filed by the 7th respondent in W.P.(C) No.7151 of 2021 seeking to review the judgment of this Court in the writ petition dated 3.2.2021. The following are the grounds raised by the review petitioner:

"B) The Petitioner is supplying water to various areas in Eloor Municipality through the network of KWA under two schemes, i.e (i) under the directions of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee and (ii) as requested by Eloor Municipality. As per Scheme (i) the Kerala State Pollution Control Board is to collect water charges from other 3 participants, and remit it in the Petitioner's account for the water supplied till 23.03.2017. Since thereafter KWA had taken over the supply of water under the scheme, Kerala State Pollution Control Board has to collect the water charges from 4 companies including Petitioner and remit it to KWA's account. As per scheme (ii), the KWA is to remit the charges to be shared by 6 industries including the Petitioner and KWA and remit it in the Petitioner's account. This Honourable Court only referred to the scheme (i) formulated by the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, but however directed the KWA to collect/recover the dues, for which it is not empowered under the scheme.

C) This Honourable Court ought to have seen that KWA was a participant under the 2nd scheme and was obliged to remit not only its share of the water charges but also of 5 other industries. KWA was duty-bound to act as bone but had failed miserably not only to remit their scheme but also to collect the dues of the other 5 industries and pass on the same to the Petitioner. Therefore, this Honourable Court ought to have directed the Kerala Water Authority to remit the charges for the water supplied by the Petitioner under the 2nd scheme, forthwith.

D) This Honourable Court erred in holding that as per the directions of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, the Petitioner was to pay water charges to KWA and the other companies were to pay the water charges when claimed by KWA and that the KWA, in turn was to reimburse the Petitioner. This Honourable Court ought to have seen that as per the scheme formulated on the directives of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board is to collect the fee from additional respondents and remit the same in the Petitioner's account.

E) This Honourable Court ought to have seen that as per the scheme formulated on the direction of the Supreme Court monitoring committee, the Petitioner was to supply water for a period of two years from 1/1/2009 to enable KWA to be self-sufficient to supply water directly. But the Petitioner had continued to feed the network of KWA @ INR9/KL till 23.03.2017 since KWA had failed to implement the scheme in the said period. This Honourable Court therefore ought to have directed the Kerala State Pollution Control Board to collect the dues for water supplied by the Petitioner till 23.03.2017 under the scheme and remit it in the Petitioner's account.

F) Honourable Court erred in observing that it is an admitted fact that "on the principles of polluter pays", Fertilizer and chemicals Travancore Ltd, was directed to supply water to the area in question and the rest of the companies were directed to share cost of water and accordingly the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) was made the nodal agency to collect/recover the amounts from the companies and pay the same to Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd against the amount due on water supply". This Honourable Court ought to have seen that the Kerala State Pollution Control Board is authorized to collect and remit water charges in respect of the scheme (i) formulated on the principle "Polluter pays" and that the Kerala Water Authority is the nodal agency in respect of another scheme (ii) formulated on the request of Eloor Municipality

G. This Honourable Court ought to have taken into account the fact that the Government had made adverse remarks against the Petitioner for not realizing the dues under the two drinking water schemes for Eloor Municipality and that the Kerala Water Authority which has defaulted in payment of its own share and in collecting the dues of the other companies under the 2nd scheme, is liable to be directed to remit the dues forthwith."

The subject issue relates to supply of drinking water within the limits of Eloor Municipality, under Eloor Water Supply Scheme and also as per the directions issued by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. After elaborately considering the issues raised by the respective parties, we issued the following directions:

"15. In that view of the matter, we allow the writ petition partly by making the interim order passed by this court dated 13.3.2014 as specified above, absolute, and leaving open the liberty of the Kerala Water Authority to collect/recover amounts if any legally due from any of the polluter companies in terms of the instructions of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee and the Kerala Board without fail and in accordance with law and to pay the same to the Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd., after ensuring the quantity of water supply made by it and the amount outstanding to it. Needless to say, if and when it is found that amounts are due, demand notice shall be issued to the respective companies and shall take any decision to recover the amounts only after hearing them. We also make it clear that the Kerala Water Authority,in consultation with the State, shall take necessary steps to formulate any scheme for supply of drinking water to the area in question and implement the same, at the earliest possible time and at any rate within six months from the date of receipt of a copy of this judgment."

According to the learned counsel appearing for review petitioner Sri.P.Ramkrishnan, while disposing of the writ petition, this Court has taken care of the aspects in respect of the Eloor Water Supply Scheme and thereby directed the Kerala Water Authority to collect amounts from the polluter companies and do the necessary in accordance with the directions contained in the judgment. However, we realise that there is an error apparent in the judgment since as per the directions of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, which is termed to be "Scheme 1" , Kerala State Pollution Control Board has to collect water charges from the other three participant companies upto 22/3/2017.

We have heard learned counsel appearing for all parties in the review petition and perused the pleadings and materials on record.

In that view of the matter, we allow the writ petition and modify the judgment also, directing the Kerala State Pollution Control Board to collect the water charges as per the directions of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee from the respective companies and pay the same to the review petitioner upto and inclusive of 22.3.2017.

Accordingly, the judgment is modified and Registry is directed to issue orders as per the modified judgment.