Stop Memo or Demolition Notice from a Panchayat or Municipality: Replies, Regularisation and the Tribunal

A stop memo from the panchayat or municipality usually arrives while work is still going on: a house extension, a new floor, a shop front or a compound wall. Sometimes a demolition notice comes years after the building was finished, following a neighbour’s complaint or an inspection. Either way, the first notice is a provisional order, and you are entitled to answer it before any demolition order is confirmed.

This guide explains what the notice means, what to do in the first week, when a building can be regularised, how the appeal to the Tribunal for Local Self Government Institutions works, and what a neighbour can do when the local body does not act.

A stop memo is the common name for the order by which the Secretary of a panchayat, municipality or corporation tells an owner to stop construction. In panchayats the power comes from Section 235W of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994. In municipalities and corporations, Section 406 of the Kerala Municipality Act, 1994 gives the Secretary similar powers. The process under Section 235W runs in four steps:

1. Provisional order. Where work has been started without permission, is not in accordance with the approved plan, or breaks the Act or the building rules, the Secretary can make a provisional order requiring the owner to demolish or alter the work.
2. Notice to show cause. A copy of the order is served on the owner with a notice to show cause, within a reasonable time, why it should not be confirmed.
3. Confirmation. If the owner does not satisfy the Secretary, the order can be confirmed or modified, and it then binds the owner.
4. Demolition. If the confirmed order is not obeyed, the Secretary can have the building or the offending part demolished at the owner’s cost.

Prosecution can be started at the same time. The Kerala Panchayat Building Rules, 2019 add a related power: where work departs from the approved plan or breaks the rules, the Secretary can issue a notice requiring alterations, or asking the owner to show cause why they should not be made.

• Read the notice closely. Note the section it is issued under, each ground stated (no permit, deviation from the approved plan, setback, height, parking, use of paddy land) and the time given to reply.
• Stop the work. Continuing after a stop memo exposes you to prosecution and weakens your position later.
• Collect the records. The permit and approved plan, the title deed, the tax receipt, any completion or occupancy papers, dated photographs and your correspondence with the local body. Ask for a copy of the inspection report the notice relies on; an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 is one way to obtain the file.
• Reply in writing within the time given. Answer each ground separately, attach the documents, say what you are willing to correct, and ask for a personal hearing. Keep proof of submission.
• Check whether the problem can be cured. A small deviation may be covered by a revised permit or by regularisation, explained below. The reply can say so and ask that the order not be confirmed while the application is considered.

What you say in the reply is often relied on later, before the Tribunal or the High Court, so it is worth getting right the first time.

There are several routes, depending on when and how the building was put up:

• Compounding by the Secretary. The proviso to Section 235W allows the Secretary to regularise a construction on payment of a compounding fee fixed by the Government, and Rule 92 of the Kerala Panchayat Building Rules sets out this power. It is meant for work that can be brought in line with the building rules.
• Permit for work already started. Since a 2025 amendment to Rule 92, a permit can be granted for continuing work that was started without one, on payment of twice the permit fee for the part already built and the normal fee for the rest.
• Small deviations from an approved plan. Under Rule 89, as substituted in 2025, a deviation that breaks no rule, does not change the use of the building and adds no more than 10 per cent to the built-up area for any use does not need a revised permit. It is shown in the completion plan, and the occupancy certificate is issued after double the permit fee is paid for any extra area.
• The 2024 Regularisation Rules. For unauthorised constructions carried out or completed on or before 7 November 2019, the Kerala Panchayat Building (Regularisation of Unauthorised Construction) Rules, 2024, made under Section 235AB of the Act, allow regularisation on payment of a compounding fee. Municipalities have matching rules. The Secretary of the local body verifies the application and a District Level Committee decides it. An appeal lies to a State Level Committee within 30 days, and from there to the Government within 30 days. The application fee is nil for huts and for houses of up to 100 square metres.

The 2024 Rules leave the last date for applications to be fixed by a Government order, so confirm with the local body that applications are still being received before relying on this route.

The 2024 Rules require an application to be rejected if the construction breaks certain protections. These include:

• the road setback under Section 220(b) of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, though low-risk buildings may be allowed a shortfall of up to one metre;
• a sanctioned Town Planning Scheme;
• the paddy land and wetland law, coastal zone rules, the law protecting ancient monuments and the Aircraft Act;
• the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act;
• the safety requirements listed in the Rules;
• public land, or land acquired for a public purpose.

An application also fails where there is no valid title deed, where the building has already been regularised once, or where the shortfall in parking, access width, floor area ratio or coverage goes beyond the limits the Rules allow.

Buildings on paddy land need particular care. Regularisation does not cure a breach of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008, and the District Collector can order the land restored. Whether your land needed conversion permission is explained in our guide to land conversion in Kerala.

Unauthorised buildings are often given a temporary number, commonly called a UA number, so that property tax can be collected. Section 235AA of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act makes an unlawfully constructed building liable to property tax from its completion or occupation until it is demolished, and says expressly that this does not stop the Secretary from acting under Section 235W.

A tax receipt or a UA number is therefore not a defence to a demolition notice. It can still be useful evidence of when the building was completed, which matters under the 2024 Regularisation Rules.

Orders of the Secretary on building matters, including a confirmed order under Section 235W, can be challenged before the Tribunal for Local Self Government Institutions under Section 271S of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act. The Kerala Municipality Act has a matching provision. The main rules:

• Time limit. 30 days from the notice or order. If you first appealed to the local body and it has not decided that appeal within 60 days, the limit is 90 days. The Tribunal can allow one more month if there is sufficient reason for the delay.
• Form and fee. The petition is filed in Form C, with attested copies of the petition and the documents for each opposite party. The fee is ₹50, paid at the Tribunal or by bank draft, with ₹100 towards the legal benefit fund.
• Where. The Tribunal is a single judicial officer of the rank of District Judge, sitting at the Sreemoolam Buildings court complex, Vanchiyoor, Thiruvananthapuram. It can also hear cases at the local body’s office or at another place it decides.
• Interim protection. If there is any risk of action while the appeal is pending, ask the Tribunal for interim protection at the outset.
• Reasons. In Renjini K.K. v. Mannancherry Grama Panchayat (2026), the High Court of Kerala set aside a Tribunal order that gave no real reasons, along with the demolition notice, and sent the appeal back to be heard again.

The Tribunal is the usual forum for building disputes, and the High Court generally expects it to be used first. A writ petition before the High Court of Kerala is appropriate where the local body acted without jurisdiction or without hearing the owner, where the Tribunal’s own order is unreasoned or plainly wrong, or where an application for a permit, a building number or regularisation is simply not being decided.

The High Court will not allow the process to be used for delay. In Thampi A.V. v. Alias Abraham (2026), a Division Bench refused to interfere where, after the Tribunal had upheld a municipal demolition order, the owners filed one regularisation request after another to hold up its implementation. Our guide to writ petitions in the Kerala High Court explains how that remedy works.

A neighbour affected by an unauthorised construction can complain in writing to the Secretary, with photographs and the property details, and ask for an inspection and action under Section 235W. Keep proof of the complaint.

If the local body does not act, a complaint can be made to the Ombudsman for Local Self Government Institutions, in Form A with a ₹10 court fee stamp, or a writ petition can be filed seeking a direction to the Secretary to enforce the law. Where the construction affects your own property rights, such as a boundary or a pathway, a civil suit for an injunction is a separate remedy; see our guide to boundary disputes with a neighbour.

Many notices arise from changes made on site after the permit was issued. Under Rule 89 of the Kerala Panchayat Building Rules, as substituted in 2025:

• if you intend to deviate from the approved plan, apply for a revised permit before building the change; the fee is the permit fee for the changed portion, less what was already paid;
• if the change has already been built, the revised permit costs double the permit fee for that portion;
• shifting the building within the plot, or moving rooms, stairs, doors or windows, needs no revised permit if it breaks no rule, but it must be shown in the completion plan;
• a revised permit keeps the expiry date of the original permit.

Before buying a recently built house, ask for the permit, the approved plan and the occupancy certificate, and check that the building matches them. Our guide to property title verification in Kerala covers the other checks.

Adv. K Rajesh Kannan, a High Court of Kerala advocate with over 24 years of practice, advises owners, buyers and neighbours across Kerala on stop memos, demolition notices, building permits and regularisation. He reviews the notice and the building records, advises on the reply and on regularisation, and takes up writ petitions before the High Court of Kerala. Appeals before the Tribunal for Local Self Government Institutions are also handled through the office.

This guide is general information. What can be done depends on the notice, the permit and the facts of your building, so the papers should be reviewed first. More on this work is on the Land and Local Body Law page.

Questions people often ask

Is a stop memo final?
No. Under Section 235W it is a provisional order. You must be given a chance to show cause before it is confirmed, and a confirmed order can be appealed to the Tribunal for Local Self Government Institutions.

How long do I have to appeal to the Tribunal?
30 days from the notice or order. Where an appeal to the local body has not been decided within 60 days, the limit is 90 days. The Tribunal can allow one more month for sufficient reason.

My house was completed in 2018 without a permit. Can it be regularised?
The 2024 Regularisation Rules cover constructions carried out or completed on or before 7 November 2019, subject to the exclusions in the Rules and to applications still being received. Check with the local body first.

Does a UA number or a tax receipt make my building legal?
No. Section 235AA makes the building liable to property tax, but says expressly that this does not stop action under Section 235W.

Can the panchayat demolish without hearing me?
The Act requires the provisional order to be served with a notice to show cause before it is confirmed, and the High Court insists on reasoned orders. If an order was passed without a hearing, take advice at once.

This guide gives general information about the law in Kerala. It is not legal advice on any particular case.