Justice Jayanta Biswas held that the KMC has the discretion of not allowing any owner to let out his premises without an application.
On March 7, 2007, the KMC had issued a notice inviting applications for permission to let out buildings for ceremonies. The KMC rules provided that such buildings not be located within 500 meters of hospitals, educational institutions and religious places and 300 metres of residential buildings.
Going by the rules, many will be debarred from renting their buildings.
Around 2,000 residential buildings within the KMC jurisdiction are used for such purposes. But KMC sources said 370 buildings were listed last year. This year, owners of only seven have renewed their licences.
In March 2007, Debaprasad Seal and 12 other building owners had filed a petition in Calcutta High Court seeking cancellation of the notification.
The petitioners had contended that they were using the premises for ceremonial purposes after getting a “certificate of enlistment” issued by the civic body. They claimed that the KMC even charged a levy for it.
Advocate Aloke Ghosh, counsel of the KMC submitted before the Bench today that the “rules and regulations” framed in 2003 were not enforced by the KMC earlier. A section of owners had started business by letting out their residential buildings. This has prompted the civic body to enforce rules, said Ghosh.