Facing flak for allowing a hotel in central Delhi to operate "virtually for free" for seven years, the NDMC has claimed that it has taken steps to ensure charging of appropriate rent.
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) asserted that the order to maintain the rent at its original of Rs 35,000 per month, was passed by an estate officer in his judicial capacity and not administrative powers, and that the civic body cannot be blamed for the same.
"The estate officer is appointed by Lt Governor and has judicial powers of eviction or recovery of amount. He took the decision of fixing a lower rent for (Hotel) Asian International in his judicial capacity," Dy Director, Estates, Himanshu Ranjan said.
The NDMC's comments came two days after the Delhi High Court pulled it up for accepting a miniscule amount from the the hotel situated at Janpath in central Delhiand causing a "huge loss of public revenue".
The licence to operate the hotel was granted to B K Bhagat in 1977 at a fee of Rs 35,000 per month. After expiry of lease in 2007, it asked Bhagat to vacate the premises. But the hotelier went to a lower court and got a stay, Ranjan said.
The civic body then called for the intervention of an estate officer, who in 2012 ruled in favour of the hotelier and asked him to pay the same rent of Rs 35,000 per month, as against NDMC's demand of Rs 35 lakh per month, he said.
NDMC continues to issue a bill of approximately Rs 35 lakh per month after which Bhagat went to the High Court appealing the NDMC to accept the order of the estate officer and the Court had asked the civic body to implement the same, he said.
"We explained our position to the High Court who on October 10 allowed us to challenge the order of the estate officer through a writ," he said, also adding that "the NDMC had filed a review of the order with" the estate officer.
