HC stay on Mandarmani hotel demolition till Dec 14
Times of India | 23 November 2024
12 Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday stayed the operation of a notice issued by the district-level West Bengal Coastal Zone Management Authority (WBCZMA) and the East Midnapore DM that had asked owners of seaside hotels, guest houses, and homestays in Mandarmani to demolish their constructions by Nov 20.
Justice Amrita Sinha stayed the operation of the notice until Dec 13, or until further orders.
The WBCZMA issued the notice to hoteliers on Nov 11, based on a May 2 NGT order.
Justice Sinha stayed the operations of the notice after petitioners challenged its legality based on the NGT order. Petitioners argued that the NGT had no authority under the NGT Act, 2010, to delegate its powers to a joint committee that made the demolition decision.
Justice Sinha also noted that there was no coastal regulation zone (CRZ) notification in West Bengal yet.
Counsel for the petitioner, Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, submitted that the committee made the demolition decision without identifying which of the 140 hotels in the area violated the CRZ regulations. They didn't give them a chance for compliance or the option of paying compensation by polluters as provided in the Act.
Bandyopadhyay submitted that according to the WBCZMA report, 20 of the 140 hotels were on CRZ II or between CRZ I and II. He said 49 of the 140 hotels were granted sanction to operate, while the WBCZMA was sitting on applications from around 60 hotels for a long time. He said the WBCZMA didn't identify the hotels before arriving at the demolition decision.
Contesting this, counsel for the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) stated that the CPCB affidavit submitted to the court listed the names of the hotels that violated the CRZ regulation.
Bandyopadhyay said most of the constructions were made between 1996 and 2011, while the application for steps was made before the NGT in 2018, after the CRZ regulation notification was issued in 2018.