Statutory authorities must enforce the law against unauthorized activities in Cantonment areas, and cannot plead helplessness in the face of illegalities.

JUDGMENT :

(M.S. Sonak J.) :

1. Heard learned Counsel for the parties.

2. Rule. The rule is made returnable immediately at the parties' request and with the consent of learned counsel.

3. This is a rather strange case where the two statutory authorities involved, i.e., the Cantonment Board, Dehu Road, Pune and the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (“PCMC”) admit that Respondents No. 9 to 12 have illegally and unauthorisedly converted the godowns in the basement into a Bar and Restaurant, Permit Room, Country Liquor Shop, Beer Bar and Gambling Den, (as described by the Petitioner), still both the statutory authorities plead almost helplessness in taking any action against the admitted illegalities.

4. The Cantonment Board states that the PCMC must act to stop the unauthorised conversion/user. The PCMC, in its turn, states that it is for the Cantonment Board to act and stop this unauthorised conversion and user. The Cantonment Board goes to the extent of submitting that apart from launching criminal prosecution, it is helpless to stop this patently unauthorised and illegal conversion and user. The PCMC suggests that any unauthorised constructions or users within the limits of the Cantonment area are of no concern to PCMC. The PCMC insists that the Cantonment Board should deal with unauthorised constructions and users within the Cantonment area without involving the PCMC.

5. The attitude and understanding of the Cantonment Board and PCMC officials are strange, apart from the same finding no support in the statutory provisions which govern the affairs of the Cantonment Board and the PCMC. Such attitude and understanding are being fully exploited by Respondents Nos. 9 to 12, who continue, each day, to rake in substantial commercial profits from the patently unauthorised conversions and user of the godowns in the basement into what the Petitioner alleges a Permit Room, Country Liquor Shop, Beer Bar, Bar and Restaurant and even Gambling Den.

6. The Petitioner, a Retired Colonel, filed detailed complaints to the Cantonment Board and PCMC about the illegalities and unauthorised users by Respondents Nos. 9 to 12. One such complaint, dated 18 February 2016, is enclosed with this Petition as Exhibit ‘A” (pages 13 and 14). Based on the Petitioner's complaint, after a period of almost one year and five months, a notice under section 244 of the Cantonment Act 2006 was issued by Respondent Nos 1 and 2. Thereafter more than a year and seven months later, the Cantonment Board officials inspected the site premises and found ‘that the occupants of the godowns at the basement have changed the purpose of the use building and are running Restaurant & Bar, Liquor Shop, etc. which is serious violation of provisions under Cantonments Act, 2006’. Still, no action worth the name was taken by Respondents 1 and 2.

7. The learned counsel for the Petitioner argued that Respondents 1 & 2 thus aided the illegal activities of Respondents 9 to 12 by failing to take any action, though the complaint highlighted serious violations of the provisions of the Cantonments Act, 2006. He alleged that such inaction was not innocent but to enable unlawful activities to continue. He alleged that, in all probability, some influential board members were prevailed upon not to allow the Board to act and prevent the unlawful activities. He alleged that all this was for extraneous considerations.

8. The Cantonment Board, instead itself taking any action, chose to write to the Deputy Superintendent, State Excise, PCMC, Deputy Executive Engineer, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd, Shop Inspector, Shops and Establishments Act, Police Inspector, Dehu Road Police Station and other statutory authorities urging them to take action against Respondents Nos. 9 to 12 for indulging illegal and unauthorised activities through the basement premises of Nirman Arcade Complex. All these communications have been placed on record by the Petitioner along with this Petition. However, desp