PUNE: The counsel for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that the civic body would not enforce to the extent of a shopping complex on Senapati Bapat Road its June 19 notice restraining shopping complex/malls from charging parking fees on visitor’s vehicles.
The shopping complex houses the Pavillion Mall.
“The HC bench of Justice S C Dharmadhikari and Justice G S Patel has posted the matter for next hearing on July 16,” lawyer Shrinivas Patwardhan told TOI while confirming the development. He is representing the ICC Realities (India) Private Limited, which has constructed the complex and filed a writ petition challenging the PMC’s notice as “arbitrary, unreasonable, discriminatory in nature and without any authority of law”.
The PMC has ignored the opinion of its own legal department that imposing or enforcing such a notice would be “illegal” as per the provisions under Sections 2 (50) and 243A (2) of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act and in view of a Madhya Pradesh high court judgment of 2003, the petitioner said.
“The PMC has misinterpreted the parking lots in privately owned properties as ‘public places’ and made an ‘irrational and absurd classification’ by targeting only select establishments and leaving aside hospitals, educational institutions and restaurants, among others, from the purview of the impugned (under challenge) notice,” the petitioner added.
Ravindra Thorat, head of the PMC’s legal department, told TOI, “The high court has given us time to put forth our side in the matter. The PMC now has to submit its affidavit. We have time till July 16 and the submission will be done by then.”
The petitioner said use of the shopping complex had started in terms of the occupation certificate granted by the PMC and spaces for parking of visitor’s vehicles have been provided at various levels as per the sanctioned building plan.
“The petitioner has been incurring a monthly expenditure of Rs16 lakh on maintenance of parking spaces by way of security, appropriate lighting, ventilation, lifts, staircases and mechanical stores, etc. The PMC’s impugned notice is in ignorance of these facts,” the petition stated.
The PMC’s City Improvement Committee (CIC) took up the issue of parking charges at shopping complex/malls at one of its meeting and directed the civic administration to issue the notice, which was released on June 19. The ICC Realities received the notice on June 24.
The petitioner contended that the PMC’s invocation of sections 2 (50) and 243A (2) of the MMC Act in justification of the notice “is in ignorance of Sections 2 (46) and 66 of the same enactment”. Section 250 of the MMC Act, which defines ‘public places’ as those to which the public have or are permitted to have access, by itself is illegal and stretching it to privately owned property is impossible, the petitioner said.
Moreover, section 243A of the MMC Act is part of a chapter that deals with public streets and their construction, maintenance and improvement. “The parking or halting place that the legislature contemplates for the municipal corporation is thus parking or halting on streets and not inside the private premises,” the petition stated.
The shopping complex houses the Pavillion Mall.
“The HC bench of Justice S C Dharmadhikari and Justice G S Patel has posted the matter for next hearing on July 16,” lawyer Shrinivas Patwardhan told TOI while confirming the development. He is representing the ICC Realities (India) Private Limited, which has constructed the complex and filed a writ petition challenging the PMC’s notice as “arbitrary, unreasonable, discriminatory in nature and without any authority of law”.
The PMC has ignored the opinion of its own legal department that imposing or enforcing such a notice would be “illegal” as per the provisions under Sections 2 (50) and 243A (2) of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act and in view of a Madhya Pradesh high court judgment of 2003, the petitioner said.
“The PMC has misinterpreted the parking lots in privately owned properties as ‘public places’ and made an ‘irrational and absurd classification’ by targeting only select establishments and leaving aside hospitals, educational institutions and restaurants, among others, from the purview of the impugned (under challenge) notice,” the petitioner added.
Ravindra Thorat, head of the PMC’s legal department, told TOI, “The high court has given us time to put forth our side in the matter. The PMC now has to submit its affidavit. We have time till July 16 and the submission will be done by then.”
The petitioner said use of the shopping complex had started in terms of the occupation certificate granted by the PMC and spaces for parking of visitor’s vehicles have been provided at various levels as per the sanctioned building plan.
“The petitioner has been incurring a monthly expenditure of Rs16 lakh on maintenance of parking spaces by way of security, appropriate lighting, ventilation, lifts, staircases and mechanical stores, etc. The PMC’s impugned notice is in ignorance of these facts,” the petition stated.
The PMC’s City Improvement Committee (CIC) took up the issue of parking charges at shopping complex/malls at one of its meeting and directed the civic administration to issue the notice, which was released on June 19. The ICC Realities received the notice on June 24.
The petitioner contended that the PMC’s invocation of sections 2 (50) and 243A (2) of the MMC Act in justification of the notice “is in ignorance of Sections 2 (46) and 66 of the same enactment”. Section 250 of the MMC Act, which defines ‘public places’ as those to which the public have or are permitted to have access, by itself is illegal and stretching it to privately owned property is impossible, the petitioner said.
Moreover, section 243A of the MMC Act is part of a chapter that deals with public streets and their construction, maintenance and improvement. “The parking or halting place that the legislature contemplates for the municipal corporation is thus parking or halting on streets and not inside the private premises,” the petition stated.
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