S.K.Sen, J. - (1.) The licensed Building Surveyors Association, the petitioner No. 1 is a registered society and the members of the said society are the licensed Building Surveyors within the erstwhile South Suburban Municipality. The members of the petitioner No. 1 are Building Surveyors by profession. They run the business as such Building Surveyors by drawing building plans and supervising construction work of different buildings of different classes holding requisite licence from the authorities concerned. The petitioners Nos. 2 to 25 are members of the society out of total of 65 members of the said society. At all material times the members of the society had been granted licences as Building Surveyors for the construction of building under the South Suburban Municipality and they had been engaged in their said business in the area covered under the South Suburban Municipality. By the Calcutta Municipal Corporation(Amendment) Act, 1983 the said South Suburban Municipality along with several other municipalities were amalgamated into the limits of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation and as such the total area of South Suburban Municipality were added with the territorial area in the Schedule-I to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act, 1983 (hereinafter referred to as the said Act) the members of the petitioner No.1 were duly recognised by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation as licensed Building Surveyors and their licences had been duly renewed from time to time upto 31st March, 1989 and the plans in respect of the proposed construction of buildings submitted by the said members of, the petitioner No. 1 as licensed Building Surveyors were also approved and sanctions were accorded. In other words there was no impediment to the functioning of the said members of the petitioner No.1 as licensed Building Survey or upto March, 1989. However, since April, 1989 the petitioners Nos.2 to 5 and the other members of the petitioner No.1 have not been granted licence and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation has refused to accept renewal of licence fees from the members of the petitioner No, 1 including the petitioners Nos.1 to 25 although the said fees were duly tendered with the municipal authorities. Petitioners being aggrieved moved this Court under the Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction. At the hearing of the said writ application the learned Advocate for the Calcutta Municipal Corporation submitted that the Administrator, Calcutta Municipal Corporation by an order dated 30th September, 1977 in terms of section 378 (4) of the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1951 as amended in 1977 framed certain rules prescribing therein certain qualifications required to be fulfilled for obtaining the licence as licensed Building Surveyors including those of the three added units which have been amalgamated with the Calcutta Corporation now require appropriate classification. Many of such licensed Building Surveyors of the said three units do not come under the purview of any such classification on the basis of their qualification and experience. Many of such licensed Building Surveyors, however, may enroll their names in Category-2 if they so desire and renew their licences on payment of prescribed fees and continue further practice provided the said licencees must have a technically quailified engineer not below Civil Engineer attached to them and the name of the technically qualified engineer with his consent letter must be attached to such application.
(2.) An affidavit was affirmed on 15th September, 1989 by one Dwijendra Nath Pal, Law Officer of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation being the affidavit-in-opposition to the said application. Paragraph 3 and different sub-paragraphs of the said affidavit are set out hereinbelow: "3. Before I deal with the allegations made in the writ application I state the relevant facts relating to the subject matter of the said writ proceeding as follows: (a) The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act came into force with effect from 20th February, 1989 and the Building Bye-Laws of Bengal Municipal Act, 1932 as prevailing in the three added units stood abolished and the same tentamounts to application of Building Bye-Laws of Schedule XVI of the Calcutta Municipal (Amendment) Act, 1977 in respect of whole of Calcutta Municipal Corporation area having 141 Wards. (b) As per provision of Rule 50 of the said Schedule XVI employment .of licensed Building Architect is a pre-condition for according sanction of building plans. I state that there is a group of licensed Building Surveyor enrolled in the three added units to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation area, whose licences stood expired on and from March 31, 1989 and further renewal is required if they so desire. These group of licence-holders possess different qualifications both technical and non-technical of different standards. (c) Presently in the City proper having 1 to 100 Wards the practising Licensed Building Architects (hereinafter referred to as "L.B.A.") and Licensed Building Surveyors (hereinafter referred to as "L.B.S,") are of five classes, namely, L.B.A. Class - A.B. R C and L.B.S. Class - I and II. These classifications are based on different technical and non-technical qualification and experience as prescribed. (d) Under the circumstances L.B.S. of three units which have been subsequently added to Calcutta Municipal Corporation area require appropriate classification and renewal of their licences on payment of necessary fees according to classification. It was, therefore, proposed that the classification should be made according to the qualification and experience as prevailing in case of five categories as mentioned above and as prevailing in the 100 Wards in the City proper at present. (e) A good number of practising L.B.S. of the said three units do not come under the purview of any class as mentioned above in consideration of their qualification and experiences. In those cases also liberty was given to those L.B.S. to enroll their names in the category of L.B.S. Class-II, if they so desire, and to renew their licence on payment of prescribed fees and to continue further practice provided the said licences must have a technically qualified engineer not below Licensed Civil Engineer attached to them and the name of the technically qualified engineer with his consent letter must be attached to the application for renewal of the licence. (f) The aforesaid procedure was duly considered arid approved by the appropriate authority making it clear that experiences are required to be taken into consideration at the time of fixing the category."
(3.) On 14th May, 1990 an order was passed by this court to the following effect: "The Commissioner, Calcutta Municipal Corporation will file an affidavit disclosing since when the three Municipalities i.e. Garden Reach Municipality, Jadavpur Municipality and South Suburban Municipality have been amalgamated with the Calcutta Municipal Corporation and now have been granted licences or got renewal of their licences by or from the Calcutta Municipal Carporation. In 1989 what was the specific order by which they propose to change the conditions of renewal of such licences. Such affidavit is to be filed by 4.6.90. In the event such an affidavit is filed, a copy of the same is to be supplied to the writ petitioners and the writ petitioners are also at liberty to file a reply of the said affidavit within 11th June, 1990. Let the matter appear in the list as part-heard matter. The writ petitioners will be entitled to carry on their work on the basis of their old licences. Let a plain copy of this order signed by an officer of this Court be given to the learned Advocates appearing for the parties.";