- (1.) The Court : The intra -court appeal has been preferred by the appellants as against the judgment and order dated 13th August, 2010, passed by the Single Judge.
(2.) The appellants carry on business of putting up and erection of hoardings in and around Calcutta for which taxes and fees are levied by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation under Sections 202, 203 and 204 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, 1980 (hereinafter referred to as the Act of 1980). Earlier the petitioners had preferred WP No. 868 of 2006 in which prayer was made to dispose of the pending application for grant of licenses. Prayer was also made to strike down the provisions contained in Section 203 of the Act of 1980. On 29th September, 2003 order was passed directing the Corporation to issue license and furnish details of all the sites and the dues in relation to the sites of the hoardings. The petitioners were not issued the license. Therefore a contempt petition was moved.
(3.) The petitioners had set up a case in the instant matter that they had made payment for advertisement but licenses were not issued. There were various sites on which displays had been permitted to be made by the Municipal authorities in and around B.B.D Bag area for a period of five years with effect from September, 2005. Order of allotment of site had been placed on record. The petitioners were intimated vide Annexure P -3 dated 24th May, 2006 about the restriction on putting hoardings in some selected area in Calcutta from heritage point of view by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation authorities based on the recommendation by the Heritage Conservation Committee. By reason of the said letter it was informed that the Mayor in Council of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation in its meeting dated 5th May, 2006 while considering the recommendation of the Heritage Conservation Committee had decided to ban and remove all the advertisements and hoardings in the heritage precincts, heritage area of the Esplanade, B.B.D Bag, particularly Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Maidan area, Council House Street, areas in front of Writers' Buildings etc.;