SC stays demolition of Dunlop House in Kolkata till Sept 25

New Delhi, Sep 13 (UNI) The Supreme Court today stayed till September 25 the demolition of the heritage building ''Dunlop House'' situated in Kolkata.

A bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal, P P Naolekar and Lokeshwar Singh Panta issued the stay order on a petition filed by Kolkata International Foundation for Arts Literature and Culture and 17 trustees of the foundation, challenging the order of Kolkata Municipal Corporation ordering demolition of Dunlop House for construction of a shopping mall by Pataka Industries Limited having registered office in Kolkata.

The court also fixed September 25 as the date of the hearing of the petition.

According to the petitioner the building which houses the office of Dunlop India Limited has colonial architectural characteristics like Italianate and Victorian style and the city of Kolkata is also known as city of palaces because of large number of such palatial buildings in the historic city belonging to the 19th century.

According to the petitioner, the West Bengal Government was not declaring the Dunlop House as a heritage building for commercial consideration and the demolition of the building would result in destruction of a historical building which had come up in 1930 and has been there for last 76 years.

The respondents include state of West Bengal, Municipal Corporation of Kolkata, Heritage Conservation Committees, Chief Minicipal Architect and Town Planner, Municipal Commissioner Kolkata, Executive Engineer Municipal Corporation Kolkata and Pataka Industries Limited.

The petitioner has prayed to the court to direct the respondents to declare Dunlop House a heritage building and quash the demolition order.

UNI AKS/SC SI RP DS1525