Licences to eateries: HC asks officials to appear in person

Lambasting officials for issuing licences to eateries without adhering to necessary provisions, the Madras High Court today directed the Joint Commissioner of Police and the Deputy Commissioner of Chennai Corporation to appear in person.
The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M Sathyanarayanan, said "it is another case where we are being called upon to enforce the law qua civic functioning of the Corporation and police activities.
It was disturbing to find that "every morning we are facing with a spate of PILs only because of concerned authorities do not perform the job which they have to do", the bench said while hearing a PIL seeking a direction to close down all hotels/eateries including Saravana Bhavan, Hot Chips and Sangeetha till the provisions of Multi-Storied and Public Buildings rules and Madras City Police Act and Tamil Nadu Fire Services Rule-1990 are Strictly complied with.

The Judges directed the Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) and the Deputy Commissioner of Chennai Corporation to appear before it on January 30, 2015.
The bench also directed issue of private notice to all the eating houses mentioned in the PIL.
In his PIL, one S Ragu contended that eating houses like Saravana Bhavan, Hot Chips and Sangeetha Hotels were located in busy areas and more than 1000 customers are visiting these restaurant every day.
None of the eating houses has any parking space as required under rules and they were continuously violating all the provisions above-mentioned various Acts, the petitioner submitted. Vehicles were compelled to park on road sides.

In the event of any untoward incident in any of the eating houses, which were not adhering to necessary provisions, life and safety of innocent consumers were at stake, the petitioner contented.