Restaurants, banquet halls, gymnasium and shops were among the portions of Le Meridien Hotel sealed on Wednesday by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), which termed these areas unauthorised.
Following an order of the Enforcement (Building Regulation) (EBR) Department on Wednesday, a team of NDMC officials carried out the sealing drive.
Show-cause notice
The order said that a show-cause notice had been served to the hotel’s general manager on January 19 about the construction carried out in the commercial block of the hotel “unauthorisedly without prior approval of NDMC”.
An official of the department, however, said none of the units in the commercial block were sealed as the NDMC had told the Delhi High Court it would not take coercive steps in the matter. However, unauthorised portions in the main hotel block were sealed. According to the EBR department’s order, the unauthorised portions in the hotel block included restaurants, a coffee shop and terraces.
In a statement, CJ International Hotels Pvt. Ltd., the company which runs the hotel, said the NDMC had given an undertaking in the High Court not to take coercive steps, but had issued a show-cause notice. The company added that the temporary occupation certificate was issued by the NDMC on May 1, 1986 and ₹5 lakh had been levied for “compounding of the deviations in the building from the sanctioned plan”. In a late night statement, the company said that the HC had issued desealing order and the matter was posted was further hearing on Thursday morning.
“Vide a non speaking order, NDMC vide Letter No D/294-295/EE (E-BR)/18 dated 21.02.18 sealed certain portions of the Hotel including restaurant, banquet halls, gymnasium & other common areas. doing indirectly which they had undertaken not to do directly,” the company’s earlier statement had read.
Contempt of court
The company’s statement added that it had informed the NDMC in a letter that the sealing constituted contempt of court and had caused inconvenience to the public as the hotel was at 100% occupancy and the restaurants and banquet halls had been booked for wedding events for Wednesday night. The statement said the company would take “all actions, under the law, to protect its rights and interests”.
