Kolkata, Sep 23 — A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday returned the case related to the eviction notice served to Trinamool Congress general secretary and Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee’s party office at Camac Street in central Kolkata to a lower court.
Two eviction notices were served on the office occupying the seventh and eighth floors of a multi-storied building on Camac Street: one by the West Bengal Fire Services Department and another by the building owner, Ramadevi Goenka.
The Division Bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Justice Sandeep Kumar Dey said a detailed hearing with arguments from both sides was required at the City Civil Court in Kolkata. It also fixed a deadline for the lower court to complete the hearing.
On Wednesday, the bench ordered that the issue of “injunction” or “status quo” regarding the notice from the building owner to vacate the property should be resolved within 15 days of the resumption of normal court proceedings after the Durga Puja holidays. The hearing, it said, must be concluded expeditiously without prejudice to any party.
Earlier, City Civil Court Judge Sudhir Kumar had ordered that “status quo” be maintained until the main case was disposed of. The building owner then filed a case in the Calcutta High Court challenging that order.
The allegations against Trinamool regarding the Camac Street office are serious. The first is that although the lease agreement signed on March 1, 2020, between the building owner and the All India Youth Trinamool Congress required a completion certificate before possession of the seventh and eighth floors, the youth wing occupied them before the certificate was issued.
The second allegation is that a billboard was put up on the roof without informing the owner.
The third is that besides the two floors covered by the lease, the youth wing also illegally occupied other portions such as the stairs, garage and roof.
The fourth allegation is that Trinamool has not paid rent for the past five months.