Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has moved the high court against an order by Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of the court that said hookah bars could not be shut down till the state enacted a law.
Justice Mantha had last month issued the order following a petition by the National Restaurant Association challenging the move by police in Kolkata and Bidhannagar to shut down hookah bars.
The police action started after Kolkata’s mayor Firhad Hakim said on December 2 that the licence of all hookah bars in the city would be cancelled and no new licences would be issued.
“The appeal is yet to be assigned to any division bench. The date of hearing has not been fixed yet,” said a KMC official.
“In the appeal, we have referred to a section in the KMC Act, 1980, that allows the civic body to act against anything that is a nuisance to the city. We have said in our appeal that the hookah bars are a nuisance. Our contention is that there is a law that allows action against hookah bars,” the official said.
Sections 517 and 517A of the KMC Act deal with nuisance.
Section 517 says: “Where the municipal commissioner is of the opinion that there is a nuisance of any land or building, he may, by notice in writing, require the person by whose act, default or sufferance the nuisance arises or continues or the owner, lessee or occupier of the land or building or any one or more of these persons to remove or abate the nuisance by taking such measures in such manner and within such period as may be specified in the notice.”
Section 517A gives empowers the mayor-in-council to remove the nuisance. Civic officials said action against hookah bars stopped following Justice Mantha’s order.
A senior officer at Lalbazarsaid the same: “Since the high court’s order in January, action against hookah bars has stopped.” Weeks after the mayor’s announcement in December, the KMC published a notification in some newspapers declaring that all licences issued to hookah bars stood cancelled. Soon after, the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation issued prohibitory orders for hookah bars in its area.
A KMC official said the civic body in the appeal has not said whether the hookah bars are offering banned substances while serving hookah to customers. The official said the KMC does not have the expertise to ascertain what is being served.
While announcing the ban, mayor Firhad Hakim had, however, said the move was prompted by multiple complaints of drug consumption in hookah bars.
The National Restaurant Association has argued in the court that the police’s decision to close hookah parlours was contrary to the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act, which is a central law.