Calcutta High Court Dismisses Plea Against Itc

This is one of the rare cases in which costs have been imposed against a litigant for filing a petition against a corporate.

According to the petitioner Debashis Banerjee, the lease deed executed by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) in favour of ITC Hotels should be quashed.

The judgement order reads:" We fail to see any merit in the submission made by the learned counsel for the petitioner. Hence we do not find any merit in this public interest litigation and the same is dismissed with costs of Rs 10,000 and the petitioner is directed to deposit the said cost with the Registrar General, Appellate Side of this court, within a period of two weeks from date. If the petitioner fails to deposit the said cost within the aforesaid period, action for recovery of such will be initiated against the petitioner."

 

The order also says that the PIL appears meaningless and amounts to wastage of court's valuable time. The order further says that the PIL is an unfair exercise on the part of the petitioner and the object of the same is to block all the developmental activities of this state.

The petition had pointed out that the land was part of a green belt which has been enjoyed by city dwellers.

An ITC spokesperson said: "ITC has made a commitment not to spoil the natural waterbodies with the project. The interiors of the hotels will enhance the environmental ambience of the hotel. ITC has for some time, maintained a full-fledged environment management programme."

According to judgement, the writ petition had been filed under the garb of public interest litigation on the ground that the CMC cannot enter into this agreement with the ITC Hotels as it is in violation of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953.

A similar litigation had been filed by the petitioner's father last December and a judgement was given by a division bench of the Calcutta High Court dismissing the public interest litigation.