Rooftops may lose permit, law allows us to revoke permissions we had granted before: KMC
Telegraph | 6 May 2025
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is planning to revoke the permissions it had given to the city’s rooftop establishments, said a senior official on Sunday.
The KMC official said the civic body is well within its rights to withdraw the permissions it had granted if it feels something has gone wrong.
The KMC has issued notices to 83 rooftop cafes and restaurants identified by the police, asking them to “stop operations” and pull down any illegal constructions.
If the owners of these cafes and bars fail to comply with the direction, the civic body will demolish the unauthorised portions.
“It could be that the KMC had issued some permissions to a rooftop bar and restaurant earlier, but the law permits us to revoke the permission. Our building rules clearly say that the roof is common for all occupiers, owners, and residents. It shall have a common access,” said the official.
“If we had committed errors in the past by giving permissions to run rooftop establishments, it does not mean that we should continue to do so. We must make amends,” the senior official added.
KMC sources said many rooftop establishments were set up in violation of the building permit, which does not allow any construction on the roof.
Sources in the KMC said the owners and managers of the cafes, restaurants and bars may argue that they have a trade license and have been paying property taxes for a long time to the KMC, but neither of these was evidence that the structure was legal and came up as per the building permit.
“We issue a certificate of enlistment (commonly called a trade license) to anyone starting a business. This is based on self-declaration and is a practice across the country to make things easier for the trader,” said the official.
The trader has to enlist the business and obtain the certificate from the civic body.
“There is a sentence in the certificate that states all other statutory requirements must be complied with. Having a certificate of enlistment does not make the business legal if it fails to comply with all other requirements,” said the official.
Paying property tax, too, does not make any structure legal if it has come up without necessary permissions, the KMC official argued.
“A property tax is collected from the owner or occupier of a property because of the civic services provided there. The civic body provides potable water and drainage infrastructure and charges for the services. If a structure is illegal, it can still be pulled down, and paying property tax cannot be an argument against the demolition,” the official said.
The crackdown on rooftop restaurants, bars and cafes comes after mayor Firhad Hakim’s announcement on Friday that Calcutta’s rooftop cafes, lounges, bars and restaurants will be shut down. “Rooftop restaurants will be shut and the structures will have to be removed,” Hakim said.
“A terrace means a common area. No one can sell it,” the mayor said on Friday.
“Just like one can’t sell stairs or the common space in a building, a terrace can’t be sold,” he said.
The announcement came a day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited the fire-ravaged Rituraj Hotel in Mechua, where 14 people died on Tuesday, and asked the business community to follow fire safety norms or face government action.
The KMC is also issuing notices to all 83 rooftop establishments in the city identified by the police so far. In reality, the number of such cafes, bars and restaurants would be much higher.
The notices, being issued under section 401 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, 1980, asked the owners of the rooftop establishments to “stop operations”.
“We are surveying the establishments to find out the deviations and illegal constructions. The notice asks the owners to pull down illegal portions on their own, failing which the KMC will pull down the structures,” said an official.