The Calcutta High Court quashed the order to dismantle and remove the hoarding since no notice was issued by the corporation on unpaid dues of advertisement tax.
Debashree Gupta (Banerjee), the petitioner challenged the impugned notice dated May 3, 2023, the demolition and dismantling contractor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation sought to dismantle and remove the hoarding from the premises of the petitioner.
It has been submitted by the petitioner that he was not given any hearing before such notice. On the other hand, it has been submitted by the corporation that the name of the petitioner appears in the unauthorised hoarding list published by the corporation and the said list was published in the newspaper on May 19, 2022. It was submitted that the petitioner has not paid any advertisement tax.
The petitioner submitted that as of date, no advertisement is being displayed on the premises. The petitioner further submitted that he has not known about the unpaid dues since the corporation has never raised a bill for advertisement tax against the petitioner. It appeared that the petitioner has made a representation before the Corporation on May 4, 2023, for redressal of his grievances.
Justice Kausik Chanda disposed of the writ petition with a direction upon the corporation to consider the said representation by the law within a period of three weeks.
“There shall be a stay of operation of the impugned notice for a period of four weeks.”, the Court held.
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