Acting on Calcutta HC order, Kalimpong Municipality bulldozes ‘illegal’ building

In one of the rarest instances, acting on the orders of the Calcutta High Court, a three-storied illegal building was demolished on Wednesday by Kalimpong Municipality.

The court had ordered that the Kalimpong Municipality demolish the illegal part of the construction by August 14 midnight. As the entire structure is illegal, the municipality started demolishing the building located at 11th Mile, Kalimpong, on Wednesday. Incidentally, the three-storied building below CST School, 11th Mile, under ward number 7 of Kalimpong Municipality, belongs to one Mohammad Saifulla.

Bir Bahadur Blone, a retired teacher, alleging that the building had been built usurping part of his land, had challenged its legality in the Calcutta High Court.

On July 2, 2020, a “stop work” notice was issued by the Kalimpong Municipality. BB Blone had then filed a writ petition seeking the Court’s intervention.

On September 18, 2020, the Court initially directed the Kalimpong Municipality to complete the enquiry as to the legality of the construction, alleged by the petitioner to be illegal, within a period of six months from the date after giving reasonable opportunity to the petitioner and the private respondent to represent their cases.

However, this was not complied with and later, the court directed the municipality to comply within one month. During the course of enquiry, it was found that the building had been constructed illegally. Despite one year given to Mohammad Saifulla to dismantle the illegal construction, he failed to do so.

On August 14, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court passed the order stating: “I direct the Kalimpong Municipality to demolish the illegal part of the construction, for which admittedly no permission was taken from the Municipality, by 12 midnight today. The Municipality is given liberty to use a bulldozer to demolish the illegal construction in this regard.” The court also called for a compliance report by August 16.

As per instructions, a bulldozer went about demolishing the structure on Wednesday. “There has been a dispute over this house and building since 2010. We have heard both the parties on several occasions. Saifulla had constructed the building on Darjeeling Improvement (DI) Fund land.

The land had not been registered nor has a sanctioned plan, hence the whole building is illegal. Despite this, we have called both the parties several times and tried to resolve the issue. However, Blone filed a petition at the Calcutta High Court. We have complied with the Court’s order and dismantled the building,” said Rabi Pradhan, administrator, Kalimpong Municipality.

The demolition took place in the presence of a large police contingent.

“We were tricked. Bir Bahadur Blone would always tell us that there is nothing to worry about. I had offered to buy the land and come to a settlement. He would state that the amount would be negotiated. Then he suddenly asked for an exorbitant price and went to court,” alleged Saifulla. Blone, however, brushed away the allegation stating that Saifulla had forcefully occupied his land and the building was illegal.