High Court orders closure of Hotel Mountview’s rear wall entry

Saurabh Malik

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 7

One wing of the UT Administration has defied the other. CITCO has conceded before the Punjab and Haryana High Court that access to a gym and spa facility at Hotel Mountview from a gate in the rear boundary was unauthorised. Taking a note of the conceded position, the High Court has directed the closure of the entry.

As the petition filed by the Residents Welfare Association and other petitioners against CITCO and other respondents came up for resumed hearing, the Bench of Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa and Justice Vivek Puri took note of the fact that counsel for CITCO, on a specific query, conceded that it had applied for permission to the UT Administration for creating an entry in the rear boundary wall of the hotel for providing direct access to the gym and spa facility. But the permission was still awaited. “In other words, it stands conceded before us that the entry permitted from the rear boundary wall of the hotel as on date is unauthorised,” the Bench asserted. In its detailed order, the Bench also took note that a request had already been made for the closure of the gate as it was in violation of the approved zoning plan. The request was made vide a memo, dated June 30, 2020, issued by the Chief Architect, UT Department of Urban Planning, to the CITCO Managing Director. It was reiterated vide another memo, dated January 12.

“We are inclined to direct the first respondent-CITCO to ensure that the access granted to the gym and spa facility from the gate in the rear boundary wall be stopped forthwith and till further orders. It is so directed. Such interim directions are being issued keeping in mind that there will be access in any event to the gym and spa facility from the main entry/gate of Hotel Mountview, Sector 10, Chandigarh,” the Bench observed.

Referring to an application for impleadment by a private party granted lease to operate the gym and spa facility, the Bench observed that an objection had been raised that the gate/entry from the rear boundary wall had been functional since January 2019.

The Bench added that even if that was so, such access from the rear boundary wall of the hotel would not lend legitimacy merely on account of efflux of time, in the light of candid admission by CITCO. The case will now come up for hearing in October last week.