Prabir Chandra & Anr vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2023 Latest Caselaw 3031 Cal

    3.
28-04-2023
 debajyoti
(Ct. no.06)
                              MAT 505 of 2023
                                    +
                             IA NO:CAN/1/2023
                                    +
                                CAN/2/2023

                            Prabir Chandra & Anr.
                                      Vs.
                        The State of West Bengal & Ors.

              Mr. Raghu Nath Adhikary,
              Ms. Priyanka Saha
                                         ... For the Appellants.
              Mr. Kamalendu Ghose,
              Mr. Raja Ghosh
                                         ... For the State.
              Mr. Gautam Lahiri
                                         ... For Respondent Nos.3 & 4.

Mr. Swapan Kumar Nandi, Mr. Debjyoti Ghosh ... For Respondent No.6.

This appeal is directed against a judgment and order dated January 10, 2023, whereby the writ petition of the respondent no.6 herein, was disposed of.

The writ petitioner had approached the learned Single Judge complaining of illegal and unauthorized construction by or at the instance of the respondent nos.6 and 7 in the writ petition, who are the appellants herein.

It appears that pursuant to the complaint of the writ petitioner, Serampore Municipality issued notice under Section 218 of the West Bengal Municipal Act, 1993. The grievance of the writ petitioner was that apart from issuance of notice, no further step was being taken by the Municipality.

Learned advocate, appearing for the Municipality, submitted before the learned Single Judge that necessary consequential steps shall be taken in the matter in accordance with law.

The learned Judge disposed of the writ petition with the following observations:-

" In view of the above, the instant writ petition is disposed of by directing the Board of Councillors, Serampore Municipality to take steps in accordance with law, to deal with the unauthorized construction after giving proper notice to the person responsible for making construction.

Endeavour shall be taken to ensure that the unauthorized construction is demolished within a period of twelve weeks from the date of communication of a copy of this order. "

Being aggrieved, the private respondents in the writ petition have come up by way of this appeal.

Learned advocate for the appellants says that no liberty of hearing was granted to the appellants by the Municipality before passing the order of demolition. This is disputed by learned advocate for the Municipality, who, however, does not seem to be fully instructed.

The Municipality shall file a report in the form of affidavit responding to the allegations in the stay petition. In particular, it will be stated in the report as to whether or not, opportunity of hearing was granted to the appellants prior to the Board of Councillors passing demolition order. Such report shall be filed on

the adjourned date. All relevant documents including notice of hearing, if any, shall be annexed to the report.

Let this matter be listed again on May 08, 2023.

Till May 12, 2023 or until further orders, whichever is earlier, no coercive step shall be taken by the respondents in respect of the impugned construction.

(Apurba Sinha Ray, J.) (Arijit Banerjee, J.)