The Calcutta High Court has stayed any action based on a fire department notice directing the owner and occupier to vacate the sixth and seventh floors of the Trinamool Congress office building at 9, Camac Street, Kolkata, pending further proceedings.
Justice Krishna Rao’s bench granted the interim protection on Friday and is scheduled to pronounce its order on September 16. The court questioned the speed of the fire department’s action, observing that obtaining a fire licence could not happen overnight and that the authorities could have allowed additional time for compliance if they were dissatisfied with the response.
The notice served on the owner and occupier cited several fire-safety concerns on the two floors. It said multiple LPG cylinders had been stored in a seventh-floor kitchen and cafeteria area that was not shown in the approved plan. According to the notice, the additional facility increased the fire load and compromised the life and fire safety of occupants.
The fire department also noted that the sequence of pumps was not maintained according to standard norms and that firefighting water was not available in the riser system at the seventh-floor level. A riser is a vertical pipe network designed to carry firefighting water between floors of a building.
The notice further recorded that the office had only one entry and exit to the internal corridor on the seventh floor. The department said this could create an evacuation problem during an emergency. It also directed that the sixth and seventh floors be vacated after identifying deficiencies in those areas.
The dispute follows an incident in the last week of August, when a joint team of Kolkata Municipal Corporation officials and police visited the building to remove a rooftop billboard bearing the party’s name. The visit led to resistance from Trinamool leaders and members, followed by a scuffle on the staircase. Police subsequently registered three FIRs.
After that incident, fire department officials carried out an audit of the building. The report placed before the court said the building’s fire certificate had lapsed, although the department had identified the sixth and seventh floors as the areas susceptible to fire-safety risks.
Advocate Kishore Datta, appearing for the Trinamool Congress, told the court that the party had replied to the department’s queries and had complied with some of the points raised. Lawyers representing the party had also appeared before the fire department.
The landlord’s lawyer told the court that access to the premises had later been restricted to the owner and alleged that the cafeteria had been constructed without informing the landlord. Justice Rao questioned whether the owner had issued any notice or accepted rent for the cafeteria. The lawyer replied that the cafeteria was not visible from outside and that the owner had therefore not known about its construction.
The interim stay keeps the vacate direction from being acted upon until the court considers the matter further. The next scheduled development is the bench’s order on September 16.
