Following a Gujarat high court directive, the Gandhinagar Urban Development Authority (Guda) had to open seals of seven shops situated on Infocity campus in Gandhinagar.
Following a Gujarat high court directive, the Gandhinagar Urban Development Authority (Guda) had to open seals of seven shops situated on Infocity campus in Gandhinagar on Friday.
Guda officials had sealed these seven shops on June 4 without serving any prior notices to the owners. The sealed properties include three shops selling readymade garment and a restaurant. However, the owners then approached the high court, which asked the authorities to open the seal before 6 pm on Friday.
On the issue of breach of contract and raising constructions without getting stipulated permission, a dispute started between the promoters of Infocity, Creative Infocity limited (CIL) and the government authorities a year ago. Earlier, the government-owned Gujarat Informatics Limited had also been ordered to take re-possession of the properties of CIL.
“Admittedly, there is nothing on record to show that the petitioners were served notices for sealing or restraining them from any activity in the premises,” observed Justice Kalpesh Jhaveri, while pulling up Guda authorities for their act. Even if any illegal activities are being carried out in the premises, the authority concerned should give reasonable notice to explain such activities, he said.
On behalf of the shop owners, advocate Pathik Acharya submitted that no notice was issued before sealing the premises and that it was done in “complete violation of the principles of natural justice”. He also argued that the huge investments made by the petitioners had been put to “prejudice” against them.
However, countering Acharya’s submission, Guda argued that the court should dismiss the shop owners’ petition on grounds that they had approached the civil court too. The development authorities said that five of the petitioners have been using the premises for commercial shop purposes against its permitted use for school and hostel, while two petitioners are using the premises as shops, whereas the BU permission was granted for office purposes alone.
The Guda officials therefore argued that the shop owners had breached statutory rules. However, the officials couldn’t furnish any notice that had been served to the shop owners.
The court, not satisfied with Guda’s argument, ordered to open the seals of the shops. However, in its order the court has also made it clear that “it will be open for the Guda to issue notice and take action against the petitioners in accordance with law and that its order will not restrain the development authorities from taking any action for irregular or illegal activities of the shop owners. “If it is so, reasonable notice will be given in accordance with law,” the court order said.
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