Calcutta High Court Rejects CPI(M) Plea Against Removal of Temporary Book Stall
The court stated that one cannot run a bookstall by just making an application and paying necessary fees to the authority without having a permission to run the bookstall.
Calcutta High Court rejected CPI(M)'s petition seeking for stoppage of pull down the bookstall erected by them near Jadavpur coffee house during Durga Puja despite making necessary application and fee payment to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC)
While hearing the matter Justice Partha Pratim Roy held that one cannot run a bookstall by just making application and paying necessary fees to the authority without having a permission to run the bookstall.
"It is evident from the law declared by the Hon'ble Division Bench in MAT 1881 of 2026, that before the Court takes notice of the matter filed before it the petitioner has to satisfy the Court whether the said person had permission to run a stall or not. Hence the petitioner has to show that they had a valid permission to run the bookstall. But in this case there is no such permission. Therefore in light of the law declared by the Hon'ble Division Bench I am of the opinion that the Writ Petitioner are not entitled for the relief which they have sought for." The court added.
They approached the High Court when certain individuals purportedly working under KMC and along with a huge police force and a bulldozer came to demolish their stall on 17th October.
They have been erecting their bookstall at Jadavpur coffee house area during the time of Durga Puja for the past 49 years.
Following the same tradition they made an application to the Assistant Director SWM-I, Borough X, Kolkata Municipal Corporation office for granting them permission to run their book stall. They also paid a sum of ₹ 3208/- to the respective department of KMC.
They had also written a letter to the concerned station officer of the locality where the stall was to be erected.
The court after going through the matter mentioned in its order.
"As it is clear that in order to run the aforesaid bookstall an application for permission was also made on 19th September, 2026 and an amount was also deposited with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for grant of such permission. Thus by depositing the amount it can be proved that the petitioner were also aware that permission is a prerequisite for running the bookstall and hence they made the said application. Further they received the receipt of their payment made to KMC which was accepted subject to permission from the Police. It is thus clear that no permission was given to the petitioner to run the bookstall."
Relying upon a similar order passed by the Court Justice Roy dismissed the petition saying that they are not eligible for the reliefs which they have claimed from the court as they did not have a valid permission.
CPI(M) was represented by Advocate Abhijit Mondal.
