An interlocutory order deciding the rights of the parties and having the trappings of finality is a judgment within the meaning of Clause 15 of the Letters Patent and is open to challenge in an intra-court appeal.

JUDGMENT :

Arijit Banerjee, J.

1. These two appeals are directed against a judgment and order dated March 29, 2019 passed by a learned Judge of our Court in CC 37 of 2018 (Ansar Ahmed & Ors. v. Sri Sovan Chatterjee & Ors.) and CC 39 of 2018 (Sk. Jahir & Ors. v. Sri Sovan Chatterjee & Ors.) arising out of W.P. 53 of 2014 and W.P. 142 of 2014 respectively.

2. The material facts of the case, very briefly stated, are that Premises No. 20B, Karl Marx Sarani, Calcutta 700 023, was declared as a heritage building by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (in short KMC). The reason is that according to KMC, the famous Bengali poet Michel Madhusudhan Dutta was born there and/or resided in that house for a substantial period of time.

3. Two writ petitions were filed by persons who had acquired the said property in 1990 after coming to know of the declaration of the property as a heritage building. The writ petitions were disposed of by a common judgment and order dated July 11, 2016, the operative portion whereof reads as follows:-

“I think, in the circumstances, I should refer the declaration of the subject building as Heritage to the Commission, to review and reassess the view taken by the said Expert Committee and the Heritage Conservation Committee endorsed by the Corporation. This review or reconsideration should be done following the guidelines given in this judgment and upon notice to the petitioners upon hearing them or upon giving them an opportunity of hearing and by a reasoned decision within three months of communication of this order. I order, accordingly. If the decision of the Heritage Commission is that the recommendation of the Heritage Conservation Committee was correct, then that is the end of the matter. If the decision is that it was incorrect, then the decision of the Commission will be send to the Mayor-in-Council under Section 425B of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, 1980 and, thereafter, to the Corporation for final approval of the same. The Corporation should be able to take the decision, if so required within a further period of eight weeks from the date of communication of the decision of the Heritage Commission. The Corporation will not ordinarily interfere with the decision of the Commission. If it does, it has to be supported by detailed reasons.”

4. Alleging violation of the aforesaid order, two contempt petitions were filed by the owners of the said property.

5. A compliance report was filed by KMC in one of the said contempt applications. From such report it appears that the opinion of the West Bengal Heritage Commission (in short WBHC) having sought for by KMC as regards whether or not the said property deserves to be declared as a heritage building, the WBHC communicated its decision to KMC by a letter dated September 5, 2017. The final opinion of WBHC as recorded in the compliance report was to the following effect:-

“The Commission, therefore, does not find any documentary evidence to uphold the decision of the Heritage Conservation Committee of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The Commission considered for settlement of the issue for making some provision for installing a statuette along with a plaque inscribing the brief history of the poet in his memory at a prominent place of the proposed project of the petitioners at 20B, Karl Marx Sarani.”

6. The compliance report then recorded as follows :-

“It is submitted that having due regard to the solemn direction of the Hon’ble Justice I.P. Mukerji as contained in the order dated 11.07.2016 the Heritage Conservation Committee held a meeting on 11.08.2018 when the Historian member of the HCC placed his report in respect of the building at 20B, Karl Marx Sarani. In the said report the Historian made a reference to a memoir written by Sibnath Shastri wherein it is mentioned that Madhusudan Dutta resided in this house for a substantial period of his student life and had his school and college education from this house. The WIKEPIDIA and other biographies also confirm