High Court Of Calcutta
Before Mr. Justice Dipankar Datta
AMLANABHA DAS - Appellant
Versus
STATE OF WEST BENGAL - Respondent
W. P. 25909 Of 2006
Decided On : 12/22/2006
DRUGS AND COSMETICS ACT - RENEWAL OF LICENSE - CONSIDERATION OF REPRESENTATION - MAINTAINABILITY OF WRIT PETITION - [SECTION 65A, 76, 78, 83, 84AA, 85, SCHEDULE-M]
Fact of the Case:
Petitioner sought a mandamus on the Drug Controller to consider and dispose of the petitioner's representations objecting to the issuance of a Schedule-M certificate in respect of the premises to respondent Nos. 4 and 5, who are monthly tenants under the petitioner and hold a license to manufacture drugs for sale under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. The petitioner alleged that the respondents had carried out unauthorized construction in the premises and that the Drug Controller had not responded to his representations.
Finding of the Court:
The Court held that the writ petition was not maintainable since the petitioner had no legal right to object to the renewal of the license and the Drug Controller was not under any legal duty to consider the petitioner's representations. The Court noted that the petitioner had not been able to spell out the prejudice he would suffer if the Drug Controller renewed the license despite the unauthorized construction.
Issues: Whether the writ petition is maintainable when the petitioner has no legal right to object to the renewal of a license and the respondent authority is not under any legal duty to consider the petitioner's representations.
Ratio Decidendi: A writ petition is not maintainable unless the petitioner has a legal right that has been infringed by the respondent's action. In this case, the petitioner did not have a legal right to object to the renewal of the license, and the Drug Controller was not under any legal duty to consider the petitioner's representations. Therefore, the writ petition was not maintainable.
Final Decision: The writ petition was dismissed.
( 2 ) ALLEGING that the respondent Nos. 4 and 5 had been carrying on unauthorised construction in the said premises, the petitioner had approached the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (hereafter the Corporation)with the prayer to initiate appropriate action against them. The Corporation not having acted on the basis of the petitioner's prayer, Writ Petition No. 16602 (W)/05 had been instituted by the petitioner in this Court. By order dated 23. 11. 2005, the writ petition stood disposed of with a direction upon the Corporation to initiate a proceeding under Section 400 of the Kolkata municipal Corporation Act and to conclude such proceeding after hearing the petitioner and the respondent Nos. 7 and 8 (respondent Nos. 4 and 5 herein) within the time-frame fixed therein. Till such time determination was made by the Corporation in terms of the said order, the parties were directed to maintain status quo with regard to such construction.
( 3 ) IN compliance with the aforesaid order, a proceeding was initiated by the Corporation under the appropriate law which culminated in an order dated 3. 3. 06 being passed by the Special Officer (Building) of the corporation, whereby the respondents 4 and 5 were found responsible for raising unauthorised construction in the said premises and, accordingly, were directed to demolish the same at their own costs and risk within 15 days from date of communication of the order.
( 4 ) HAVING come to learn from the office of the Drug Controller, respondent No. 2 herein, that steps were being taken to issue Schedule-M certificate in favour of respondent Nos. 4 and 5 in respect of the said premises, the petitioner appears to have lodged a series of representations calling upon the respondent No. 2 not to issue Schedule-M certificate in favour of the respondent No. 4 in view of the fact that unauthorised construction has been raised by it in the said premises.
( 5 ) THE respondent No. 2 did not respond. Feeling aggrieved by the inaction on the part of the respondent No. 2 in considering the representations lodged by him, the petitioner has approached this Court once again with the present petition, now praying for mandamus on the respondent No. 2 to consider and dispose of the representations of the petitioner, objecting to issuance of Schedule-M certificate in respect of the said premises in favour of respondent Nos. 4 and 5. Additionally, a mandamus has been prayed for on the respondent No. 2 to forthwith cancel/ rescind/withdraw the decision taken, if at all, for issuance of a Schedule-M certificate.
( 6 ) MR. Bose, learned Senior Counsel representing respondent Nos. 4 and 5 has raised a preliminary objection with regard to maintainability of the writ petition. He has submitted that no legal right of the petitioner having been infringed by any action of the respondents, he is not entitled to maintain this writ petition and the same ought to be dismissed. He further submits that the writ petition has been filed with the intention of evicting respondent Nos. 4 and 5 from the said premises in an indirect manner, without instituting a suit for eviction before the competent Civil Court. In support of his submissions, he has relied on the following decisions: -
(i) AIR 1964 SC 685, State of Orissa v. Ram Chandra Dev; (ii) 2006 (4) CHN 689, Pravat Kumar Mukherjee v. State of west Bengal: (iii) 2006 (2) CLJ 637, Surajdeo Singh v. Board of Trustees for the Port of Calcutta: and (iv) 78 CWN 183, Corporation
REFERRED TO : State of Orissa v. Ram Chandra Dev
Pravat Kumar Mukherjee v. State of West Bengal
Gadde Venkataeswara Rao v. Government of Andhra Pradesh
Calcutta Gas Company v. State of West Bengal
Jayanta Kumar Banerjee v. State of West Bengal
Aeltemesh Rein v. Union of India
C.Albert Morris v. K. Chandrasekhar
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