The Hindu : New Delhi News : Supreme Court paves the way for Chanakya demolition

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Saturday, Sep 01, 2007
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New Delhi

Supreme Court paves the way for Chanakya demolition

J. Venkatesan

A new multiplex to replace the theatre now.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday paved the way for demolition of Delhi’s grand old Chanakya cinema at Chanakyapuri to facilitate construction of a new multiplex in its place by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).

A Bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice S. H. Kapadia dismissed a special leave petition filed by the owners of the cinema, Aggarwal and Modi Enterprises, against a Delhi High Court order directing them to vacate the cinema complex leased to them way back in 1967. The lease was renewed in 1970 by the NDMC.

The Bench ordered the petitioner to hand over possession of the cinema complex to the MDMC authorities by December 31 this year.

The petitioner while challenging the show-cause notice to vacate the premises opposed the plan for construction of a multiplex by demolishing the existing structure.

It submitted that in the event of construction of a multiplex it should be given the first option to match the highest bid at the time of the auction proposed by the civic agency.

It said the company had been paying Rs. 25 lakh as licence fee per year to the NDMC.

When the NDMC said that it wanted to construct a multiplex, the company had offered to pay it Rs 1.80 crore per year as against its estimated revenue of around Rs. 2 crores.

It said since the company had earned a lot of goodwill, it would accept any nominal increase in the rent to be decided by a committee.

The NDMC told the Court it planned to construct a multiplex here before the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi and a global tender had to be floated for that purpose.

Since 2001 the company had been raising various legal disputes and preventing the NDMC’s proposal, it said.

The Delhi High Court on August 30, 2005, had ordered the company to hand over possession of the premises to the NDMC by November 30, 2005. Delivering its judgment on the appeal against the High Court order, the Supreme Court dismissed the special leave petition holding that it had no merits and it would not interfere with the High Court order.

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