Judgment · High Court
Case at a glance
Outcome
Disposed of
petition stands disposed of
Provisions considered
- West Bengal Municipal Act, 1993 ss. 218, 218(1)
Judgment
Mr. Ghosh, learned advocate appears for the Hooghly-Chinsurah Municipality being the principal respondents and has submitted that a valid resolution was taken in the meeting of the Board of Councillors and in the resolution taken therein the Chairman of the Municipality was duly authorized to issue the order dated 28th January, 2013 asking the petitioner to demolish construction which has been put up without any sanctioned plan. Therefore, according municipal authorities there is no illegality in issuing the order dated 28th January, 2013 3 directing the petitioner to demolish the illegal construction. This Court has heard the learned advocates representing the parties and perused the relevant materials available on record including impugned order of demolition dated 28th January,
Operative part
2013. Without delving into the issue of necessity to pass demolition order by the Board of Councillors as it has been agitated on behalf of the petitioner it transpires that the impugned demolition order dated 28th January, 2013 was issued by the Chairman of the Municipality without affording opportunity of being heard to the petitioner. Failure on the part of the municipality to extend the opportunity of being heard violates the prescription of law as contained in Section 218(1) of the West Bengal Municipal Act, 1993. On consideration of Section 218(1), appears to this Court that before issuing order of demolition there is a need to grant opportunity of hearing to the persons responsible. In the above conspectus, the order of demolition dated 28th January, 2013 stands set aside. However, this order shall not preclude the concerned authority of Hooghly-Chinsurah 4 Municipality initiate demolition proceeding afresh in accordance with law. If such proceeding is initiated within a period of thirty days from date the same shall be taken into logical conclusion within a period of twelve weeks thereafter. However, it is made clear that if opportunity of hearing is granted to the petitioner he shall not take any unnecessary adjournment. With the aforesaid direction, the writ petition stands disposed of. However, there shall be no order as to costs. Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the learned Advocates the parties the usual undertakings. (Saugata Bhattacharyya, J.)
Questions this judgment answers
What did the Court decide in this case?
The Court recorded the following disposition: petition stands disposed of
Which statutory provisions did this judgment involve?
West Bengal Municipal Act, 1993 — ss. 218, 218(1).
Precedent status how later indexed judgments have treated this case
No known negative treatment found in the Courts & Cases corpus.
This is a result about the indexed corpus, not a finding that the judgment remains good law. Coverage may be incomplete.