- (1.) Before commencement of hearing of this writ application, I had invited the views of the parties as to whether I should release this application on the ground that I am a resident of the Hastings area. Learned Counsel for the parties came back and said that they had no objection if this Court entertained the writ application. The sixth respondent was, till this writ was filed by the army in 2011, in the process of rapidly constructing and making ready a fourteen storied hotel in Hastings in Kolkata. The General Officer Commanding caused this writ application to be moved, when on 30th September, 2011, an interim order was passed directing the Kolkata Municipal Corporation not to grant any occupancy certificate to the hotel. Fourteen stories of the hotel had already been erected when this writ application was filed in this Court.
(2.) The army called for its demolition. Its ground was that the location, height and the proposed user of the hotel were not congenial to the security of Fort William, an army establishment within a radius of 1.5 kilometers or so from the hotel.
(3.) It was submitted by Mr. Bhattacharya that an unlimited number of persons, including foreigners would come into the hotel. It was possible for them, even if remotely, to keep some track of activities in Fort William. This was disputed by the sixth respondent.;