Refrain from demolishing rooftop eateries in Kolkata till further orders: Calcutta HC

Kolkata, May 5 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Monday gave a verbal direction to Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the Kolkata Police to refrain from demolishing rooftop eateries in Kolkata including bars, restaurants, and bar-cum-restaurants.

Last week, the KMC ordered the immediate closure of rooftop eateries in the city in the backdrop of a devastating fire at a hotel at Madan Mohan Burman Street in central Kolkata which broke out on the night of April 29, killing a total of 15 people.

Immediately after that announcement, stop-work notices were issued to such rooftop eateries owners and joint teams of KMC and city police also reached some of these establishments to demolish the rooftop structures there.

However, the owners of such a rooftop establishment at Park Street approached Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Gaurang Kanth against the action and the matter came up for hearing on Monday.

After a detailed hearing into the matter, Justice Kanth verbally directed the KMC and the city police to refrain from such demolition action till further orders.

The counsel of the state government authorities also assured the court that no further action would be taken unless the orders from the court on this count were clear.

The matter is likely to come up for a hearing on May 8.

On Monday, the single-judge bench also questioned why the demolition initiative was undertaken by the state government authorities without serving proper notice to the authorities of the said establishment at Park Street.

Last week, while announcing the decision for the immediate closure of all rooftop eateries in Kolkata, the city mayor, Firhad Hakim, said since the roof of any building is a common area, it cannot be sold or used for business purposes, like the ground floors.

He also said that roofs are the last shelter for people trapped in buildings under fire in case the emergency exits of those buildings either do not exist or are non-functional for certain reasons.

“We want to keep the options for that last shelter open and, hence, we have issued the order for immediate closure of all rooftop eateries,” Hakim said.

--IANS

src/pgh