Khwaja Mohammad Yusuf, J. - (1.) The writ petitioners' only prayer is to issue a writ of mandamus commanding the respondents to enforce and give effect to the provisions of the West Bengal Cinemas Development Scheme, 1976 and to grant incentives to the Cinema House of the petitioners. The case of the writ petitioners, in short, is that they carry out the business of exhibiting cinematographic films at the Rajendra Cinema in the village of Lowhati under Rajarhat Police Station in the district of 24-Parganas. The Rajendra Cinema was temporary in nature without any permanent structure. In 1976 a scheme known as West Bengal Cinemas Development Scheme, 1976 was introduced by the Government of West Bengal to encourage the growth of new cinemas as well as of film production industry in the State and the said Scheme came into force w.e.f. 1st April, 1976. A copy of the Scheme was forwarded to the petitioners by the Block Development Officer, Rajarhat, sometime in August, 1976. The petitioners had applied for permission for permanent construction in May, 1972 but they did not have financial stability to go on for the construction and as such they were very much encourage on receiving the said Scheme. The District Magistrate, respondent No. 3, granted permission by an order dated 29th March, 1977 for construction of a permanent cinema house. According to para 4 of the said Scheme some incentives have been provided and one such is the granting of subsidy to the owner of every eligible cinema house to the extent indicated there. The condition of grant if that the owner of the eligible cinema house must execute a written agreement with the State Government in terms of the Scheme. The "eligible cinema house" has been defined in the said Scheme meaning a permanent cinema house with valid licence under Rule 6 of the West Bengal Cinemas (Regulation of Public Exhibition) Rules, 1956 and the petitioners were granted permission for construction on 29th March, 1977 as per direction of the District Magistrate indicated above. After completion of Che construction work the petitioners made application for grant of licence under the West Bengal Cinemas (Regulation of Public Exhibition) Rules, 1956 and such licence was granted on 10th September, 1979 and the petitioners started exhibiting cinematographic films from 12th September, 1979. When the Cinema House was under construction the petitioners wrote on 7th June, 1978 to the District Magistrate for necessary instructions and particulars regarding the registration of the said Cinema House under the said Scheme to avail the facility of the subsidy. The said letter was finally received by the Finance Department. The petitioners again wrote to the District Magistrate, respondent No. 3, on 12th May, 1979 followed by another letter on 16th October, 1979, the last one was also addressed to the Secretary and the Deputy Secretary of the Finance Department as well but the petitioners did not receive any reply. By a Notification the petitioners came to know on or about 6th November, 1979 that the respondent No. 2 has been appointed as the Administrator under the said Scheme. The further case of the petitioners is that the State Government published & booklet containing information's about the West Bengal Cinema Development Scheme, 1976 and by Notification dated 21st May, 1976 it was stated that the Administrator for the said Scheme would be notified by the Information and Public Relations Department and to the said department the petitioners wrote a letter on 6th November, 1979 for information. The petitioners made an application for registration of their Cinema House in Form No. 1 before the respondent No. 1 for obtaining registration certificate in Form No. II. Inspite of no response from any quarter the petitioners went on to complete the structure of the Cinema House with a view of getting incentives under the said Scheme. The petitioners obtained loans as well. The petitioners' contention is that the W. B. Cinemas Development Scheme, 1976 is a Government Scheme which gave incentives to the people including the petitioners to construct Cinema House but thereafter not entertaining the application of the petitioners and neglecting to perform the statutory duty has violated Article 19(1) (g) of the Constitution of India. Hence the writ petition.
(2.) The respondent No. 1 in an Affidavit-in-Opposition stated that the petitioners applied for construction of a permanent Cinema House on 29th May, 1972 and not after the introduction of the West Bengal Cinemas Development Scheme, 1976. Under Rule 4(i) of the West Bengal Cinemas (Regulation of Public Exhibition) Rules, 1976 any person desirous of building a cinema house may apply Co the District Magistrate with full particulars for approval of the proposed site and plan of building but the petitioners did not submit the building plan. It is stated that the District Magistrate by a letter dated 15th March, 1975 i.e. before the Scheme came into force approved the site but as the building plan was not submitted they were asked to submit the same. On receiving the building plan the District Magistrate by letter dated 29th March, 1977 simply asked the petitioners to complete the construction and as such the cinema hall in question was not an "eligible cinema hall" within the said Scheme of 1976. An eligible cinema house according to the said Scheme was required to submit half-yearly statement in Form No. Ill with particulars and duly certified by the Certifying authority and then to enter an agreement with the State Government. After the agreement the owner of the eligible cinema house was required to submit every six-month to the Administrator in Form IV the required particulars for Che grant of incentives and this was not fulfilled by the petitioners. If is father stated that to be entitled to the benefit of the Scheme an eligible cinema house was to reserve from its aggregated show time per year for exhibition of eligible films. An eligible film has been described by the order of the State Government stated in paragraph 8 of the said Affidavit. If is finally contended in the Affidavit that the cinema hall was not an eligible one and the owner did not abide by the conditions prescribed for the purpose and the petitioners submitted uncalled for applications not in proper form to wrong authorities and did not submit six-monthly statements. The most important contention of the Affidavit is that the West Bengal Cinemas Development Scheme, 1976 was in force from 1st April, 1976 to 31st March, 1981 and was rescinded by the State Government on 5th May, 1980 and as such the Scheme is a dead one now.
(3.) The respondent No. 2 has also filed a separate Affidavit-in Opposition. It is stated that the procedure for implementation of the said Scheme was laid down in G. O. dated 21st May, 1976 and the procedure was summarised in the Affidavit. The rest of the Affidavit is the repetition of what has already been stated in the Affidavit of respondent No. 1. The Resolution of 28th May, 1980 issued by the Finance Department (Taxation) is enclosed with the Affidavit by which the West Bengal Cinemas Development Scheme, 1976 was withdrawn.;