Pay Rs 25,000 for illegally sealing shop, HC tells Ludhiana MC

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 27

The Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the Municipal Corporation to pay Rs 25,000 to a shopkeeper for illegally sealing his shop. The MC had earlier sealed a shop at Ghumar Mandi after which a city resident had moved the court against the MC’s action.

Rajinder Singh, son of the petitioner Harbhajan Singh, said they had been running the shop since 1980 on rent but the MC had sealed the shop without even serving any notice on them a month ago.

He said they had requested the MC authorities and elected representatives but they did not pay any heed to their pleas. He alleged that the action taken by the MC’s building branch officials was totally wrong.

When they moved the court, a notice of motion order was issued asking the MC to file a specific affidavit under what provisions of the Act the shop has been sealed and further in compliance with a direction that if no legal justification is given by the MC, it will be burdened with heavy costs. The MC later unsealed the shop on May 26.

But, the counsel for the petitioner stated that the shop had remained sealed for a period of one month and the petitioner suffered substantive loss as the shop was the only source of income for his family. The Judge ordered that for illegally sealing the shop of the petitioner, the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, through its Commissioner, was directed to pay the costs of Rs 25,000 to the petitioner. The Assistant Town Planner (ATP), M S Bedi, said they had already unsealed the shop. However, he claimed that they had not received the order to pay any compensation.

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