Sunday Hearing : Calcutta High Court Orders Status Quo On Demolition At TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee's Diamond Harbour MP Office
In a special Sunday sitting, the Calcutta High Court directed the authorities to stop all ongoing demolition work at the Amtala property housing Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee's Diamond Harbour parliamentary office, and ordered the parties to maintain status quo until further orders or the next date of hearing.
Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury passed the interim order while hearing an urgent writ petition filed by Leaps & Bounds Pvt. Ltd., which challenged the demolition of its property at Amtala in South 24 Parganas as "gross, malicious and illegal."
The matter was specially assigned for hearing on Sunday after counsel appearing for Leaps & Bounds and the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) sought urgent intervention. The AITC was impleaded as a proforma respondent as its party office functions from the property.
Senior Advocate Kishore Dutta appeared for Leaps & Bounds, while Senior Advocate Ayan Bhattacharyya represented the AITC.
When the matter was initially taken up earlier in the day, the State respondents were not represented before the Court. Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury directed the petitioners to effect fresh service upon the respondents and listed the matter again later in the afternoon.
During the hearing, Senior Advocate Kishore Dutta argued that the demolition had been undertaken in complete violation of the statutory procedure and principles of natural justice.
"We were not given a hearing after serving of notice. The minimum I can get is an opportunity to respond to their allegations. They went and demolished it before I could take any steps," Dutta submitted.
He contended that under the applicable statutory framework, any complaint must first be considered by a hearing officer, whose recommendation is required to be placed before the Executive Officer of the Zila Parishad for a final decision.
"Under the statute, an owner is entitled to a notice. Here it was not given to the owner. There must be a reasonable opportunity of hearing. There can be no hearing without me knowing the allegation against me," he argued.
Dutta further submitted that no demolition order or complaint had ever been served upon the petitioner before the authorities began razing the structure.
"There was no order or complaint served on me. The demolition is going on. Everything is being looted in front of the authorities," he told the Court.
Observing that the relevant records were not before it, the Court remarked, "There is nothing on record, so we will have to ask them."
After hearing the submissions, Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury directed that all demolition activity at the site be stopped and ordered the parties to maintain status quo until further orders or the next date of hearing.
The matter will be heard further after the State files its response to the allegations raised in the writ petition.