ASHA ARORA,J. - (1.) APOT 60 of 2018 is an intra-court writ appeal which is directed against the judgment and order dated 14th August, 2018 dismissing W.P. 380 of 2017 (ICA Edu Skills Pvt. Ltd. v. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Ors.) . By the self-same judgment and order, another writ petition [W.P. No. 17691(W) of 2017 (Morris Balfour and Co. and Anr. v. Municipal Commissioner, KMC and Ors.] was also dismissed. The same is challenged in MAT 909 of 2018. Although the appeals originate from different sides (one from the Original Side and the other from the Appellate Side), we have heard the same together dispensing with all formalities, since the judgment and order under challenge is common.
(2.) The controversy arises from a notice issued under Section 412 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, 1980 (hereafter the Act), whereby the Commissioner of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (hereafter the KMC) required the occupants of a building numbered as 27, N.S.Bose Road, Kolkata - 700001 (hereafter the said building) to vacate so that the same could be demolished. While the respective appellants (occupants of the said building) sought to contend in their writ petitions that the condition of the building is not such that the same has to be razed immediately and that effecting necessary repairs thereto would result in reinforcement of its stability without causing undue prejudice and detriment to any party, the KMC as well as the owner of the said building were united in their stand that the building should be razed without wasting any time because of its dilapidated condition. The plinth of such stand was a report obtained, inter alia, from Jadavpur University. One other point raised by the appellants was that the Commissioner, in terms of Section 412 of the Act, is required to record his satisfaction that because of the dilapidated condition of a building, the same should be vacated for demolition being effected; however, in the present case, no such satisfaction had been recorded in the impugned notice and the same having been issued by the Deputy Chief Engineer of the KMC, it is without jurisdiction. The writ court in the judgment and order dated 14th August, 2018 observed that on the face of the report of Jadavpur University to the effect that the said building requires immediate demolition, the "technical issues raised by the writ-petitioners as regards the person authorized to issue notice, is far out-weighed by the dangerous structure that is standing at the premises". The court having found the said building to be in a ruinous state, directed that it should be demolished at the earliest and, for such purpose, the occupants were required to vacate the same within 15 days from date, i.e., within 29th August, 2018, and liberty was granted to the KMC to initiate steps for demolition immediately thereafter.
(3.) While hearing the applications for stay filed in these appeals yesterday, we had restrained the KMC to take step for demolition of the said building and posted the appeals for hearing today on the prayer of Mr. Banerjee, learned senior advocate for the KMC.;