A Delhi court has directed North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) to pay Rs 4.5 lakh as damages to a woman whose premises were "illegally" sealed by the civic body instead of sealing the area where a mobile tower was installed.
The court held that the liability to pay compensation was entirely on NDMC which chose not to file written statement or defend its cause as its act of sealing was "without application of mind".
"I hereby hold that defendant no. 2 (NDMC) instead of making the mobile tower non-functional by disconnecting the power supply or sealing the actual portion of the premises on the roof where the mobile tower was situated, instead sealed the access of the plaintiff to the second floor and deprived her access to the said portion of the premises ... Which was being used by her for business," Additional District Judge Kamini Lau said.
The court said that this act of NDMC was "without any application of mind and illegal per-se" since there was no dispute as this portion of the premises was concerned.
It directed the civic body to pay Rs three lakh to Sunita Kaeley, resident of Shakti Nagar in central Delhi, as the damage caused to books kept in the sealed premises, Rs one lakh for her mental harassment and Rs 50,000 as repairing charges of the area.
The woman, in her suit, had alleged that NDMC had sealed a mobile tower of Wireless TT Info Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Tata Teleservices Ltd, installed at the roof of her premises by locking the gate which gave access to the top floor.
She sought a direction to the civic agency to seal another gate nearest to the tower and open the main entrance to enable her to enter rooms and remove the raw material and books.
She also sought recovery of damages of Rs 6.5 lakh from the defendants.
The mobile company, in its reply, said that if any loss was caused to the woman, it was not due to any fault of the firm but because of the illegal action of NDMC and damages cannot be claimed from the firm.
NDMC, however, did not file any written statement on its behalf.
