Kolkata, 19 July (H.S.) : The Calcutta High Court on Sunday ordered an immediate halt to the ongoing demolition of the property housing Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee's Diamond Harbour parliamentary office at Amtala in South 24 Parganas and directed all parties to maintain status quo until further orders or the next date of hearing.

The interim order was passed by Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury during a special Sunday sitting while hearing an urgent writ petition filed by Leaps & Bounds Pvt. Ltd., which alleged that the demolition of its property was gross, malicious and illegal.

The matter was taken up on an urgent basis after counsel appearing for Leaps & Bounds and the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) sought immediate judicial intervention. The AITC was impleaded as a proforma respondent as its Diamond Harbour parliamentary office operates from the disputed premises.

Senior Advocate Kishore Dutta represented Leaps & Bounds Pvt. Ltd., while Senior Advocate Ayan Bhattacharyya appeared on behalf of the AITC.

When the case was first called earlier in the day, the State authorities were not represented before the court. Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury directed the petitioners to serve fresh notice upon the respondents and listed the matter again later in the afternoon.

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Kishore Dutta argued that the demolition had been carried out in complete violation of the statutory procedure and the principles of natural justice. He submitted that the petitioner was not given an opportunity to respond after the notice was served and that the authorities began demolishing the structure before any hearing could take place.

Dutta further contended that under the applicable statutory framework, complaints relating to such matters must first be examined by a hearing officer, whose recommendations are then placed before the Executive Officer of the Zila Parishad for a final decision. He argued that the property owner was neither served with the complaint nor provided a reasonable opportunity to be heard before demolition commenced.

He also informed the court that no demolition order or complaint had been served on the petitioner and alleged that the structure was being demolished while authorities remained present at the site.

Observing that the relevant records were not available before the court, Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury remarked that the authorities would have to explain the circumstances surrounding the demolition.

After considering the submissions, the court directed the authorities to immediately stop all demolition work at the site and ordered both sides to maintain status quo until further orders or the next date of hearing.

The matter will now be taken up again after the State files its response to the allegations raised in the writ petition.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh