Toilets in petrol pumps only for customers, not general public: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court recently held that toilets at petrol pumps are intended for the use of customers alone and not for the general public [Petroleum Traders Welfare and Legal Service Society & ors v State of Kerala & ors]..Therefore, Justice CS Dias directed the State government and the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation to not insist that petroleum retail outlets open their privately maintained toilets to the general publicThe Court passed the interim direction while considering a petition filed by Kerala's petroleum dealers association and several individual outlet dealers, challenging actions by local authorities which treated private toilets at petrol pump premises as public conveniences.The Court has directed the State and the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation not to insist that the washrooms in petrol pump outlets should be made open for use by the general public..The petitioners, including a registered association of over 300 retail petroleum dealers in Kerala and individual petroleum dealers, alleged in their petition that municipal authorities had arbitrarily pasted posters on washrooms located within private fuel stations, declaring them as 'public toilets.'They stated that private toilets maintained at fuel stations were specifically intended to cater to the emergency needs of customers who come to refuel their vehicles.However, local authorities were reportedly pasting posters with feedback QR codes on such toilets, misleading the public into believing they were meant for unrestricted public use.They stated that this misrepresentation was causing large crowds, including tourist buses, to access these premises, leading to altercations and chaos, and compromising safety at petrol bunks as per the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO) guidelines."It is humbly submitted that apart from the inconveniences and hardship being caused to the retail outlet dealers, each time a large number of people approach the retail outlet premises for usage of toilets therein, there is a larger public nuisance and impending disaster that is looming large," the petition stated.It was further pointed out that such actions violated PESO's 2018 directive, which clearly stated that toilets at petroleum retail outlets were to be used only by customers in emergencies, and never as public utilities.The petitioners stated that the corporation's excuse for pasting such posters was that they were acting on the basis of a Local Self Government Department Order and Swachh Bharat Mission guidelines.However, the petitioners stated that these guidelines did not authorise the conversion of private facilities into public ones, but rather placed the responsibility of constructing public toilets on the government.The petitioners thus sought the Court's intervention to declare that their private toilets are protected under Article 300A of the Constitution (right to property) and cannot be treated as public property..The petitioners were represented by advocates Adarsh Kumar, KM Aneesh, Shashank Devan and Yadu Krishnan PM.The Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation was represented by standing counsel Suman Chakravarthy.