Natural justice requires a party to be heard before any order that affects their rights is decided, particularly in matters of condonation of delay under statutory provisions.

Judgement :

CHAITALI CHATTERJEE DAS, J.

1. The petitioner being Board of Trustees for the port of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Port, Kolkata (formerly known as Board of Trustees of the Port of Kolkata) a statutory body constituted under the Major Port Trust Act, 1963 has come before this Court under Article 227 of the Constitution of India challenging an order dated 11^th September, 2024, dismissing the application filed by the petitioner for recalling of the order dated 9th April, 2024, for condonation of delay and admission of appeal.

2. Shorn of any unnecessary details the case of the petitioner emanated from a proceeding initiated under the Public Premises, Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants Act, 1971, hence forth to be referred as the Act of 1971 in respect of a premises situated at the first floor of SP Mukherjee port, Kolkata, canning warehouse on the west side of Strand Road against the present Opposite Party City Variety stores.

3. The said premises was on month to month license basis occupied by the Opposite Party with effect from first January, 1979 with the standard license fee of Rs 355/- per 100.Sq. Metres per mensem along with other applicable taxes. Such license was later on terminated due to non-payment of the license fees and unauthorised subletting vide an ejectment notice dated August 21, 1985 made effective from November 1, 1985. Subsequently, the petitioner had approached the Estate Officer by application dated April 29, 2008 seeking eviction and recovery of dues in respect of the said premises. It was initiated in the year 2015, registered as P.P proceeding No. 1463 of 2015 after serving all notices on the opposite party, they failed to appear before the Estate Officer and on August 30, 2018 eviction order under Section 5 of the said Act of 1971 was passed, which was duly served upon the Opposite Party on September 4, 2018.

4. On the strength of the order of eviction ,the possession of the said premises was recovered by SMPK on October 31, 2018 and as the damages to the tune of Rs 65, 73, 128 for the period from 1.11.19 85 to 31.10.2018, accumulated in respect of the subject premises the petitioner had to initiate the proceeding under Section 7 (2) of the Act of 1971. On January 11, 2022, the Estate Officer passed the final order, thereby admitting the claim of Rs 65, 73, 128 along with compound interest @ 6.20 per annum from November 1, 1985 to October 31, 2018. Challenging the same the Opposite Party filed an appeal along with an application for condonation of delay in filing such appeal for 22 days and the Learned Court after hearing the appellant observed no delay has occurred and on the basis of the pleadings admitted the Appeal on April 9, 2024 as an empty formality and without calling for written objection to the said application.

5. The said order was served on the petitioner on April 10, 2024, and the matter appeared before the Court on April 30, 2024, when the direction was passed to the applicant to serve the copy of the Misc. appeal, stay application and application for condonation of delay and after receiving the same petitioner on August 3, 2024 filed the written objection and also filed an application for recalling of the order dated April 9, 2024. On August 3, 2024, the Learned Court without hearing the application for recalling of the order passed an interim order of stay.

6. The learned Court rejected the stand of the petitioner and rejected the application for recalling by its order dated September 11, 2024.

7. Being aggrieved there by the petitioner has come up before this Court. The written notes of argument filed by