The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ruled that one person should reside physically in a flat and host guests there to avail benefits under the Bed and Breakfast Scheme promoted by the state Tourism Department.
As per the guidelines, the classification for Incredible India Bed and Breakfast/Homestay establishment will be given only in those cases where the owner/promoter of the setup, along with his/her family, is physically residing in the same establishment and letting out minimum one room and maximum six rooms, a Division Bench of Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice V M Velumani said.
The bench was allowing an appeal filed by T V Andal, a resident of Thathachariar Gardens (block of flats) at Srirangam in Tiruchirappalli district.
In this case the owner of five apartments could not claim that he was residing physically in five apartments with his family. One person could reside physically only in one apartment, the bench said.
The Tamil Nadu Tourism Department should not have granted permission on non-satisfaction of this condition.
Under the Tamil Nadu Public Buildings (licencing) Act, if a person "lets out his entire apartment for the purpose of accommodating somebody and also for providing breakfast, the premises would come within the meaning of the expression "public building". Such a building required licence under Sec 3 of the act, the bench said.
"If an apartment owner allows guests to stay in one room and also provides lunch or dinner, the same may not strictly come within the purview of the expression public buildings."
The Appellant submitted that the Tourism Department on her earlier petition had cancelled the licence of Kamaraj who owned five apartments and had allowed the tourists to stay under the scheme without himself staying.
Kamaraj had challenged this and the court had allowed his writ plea observing that the department should have heard his view before cancelling the licence. The appellant filed the plea following this, stating as per rules Kamaraj should stay in the apartment for getting licence under the scheme.
The judges said Kamaraj could apply for using only one of his apartment under the scheme, and the Tourism Department could grant licence provided all guidelines were met.
