THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI:
The nearly three-month legal tussle between the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) and the meat traders displaced with the demolition of the old market building in the capital city has ended on an even keel with the Supreme Court of India ruling in favour of the traders demand for fixed spots to do business in the market but also ruling that lease rights must be fought via separate civil suits in appropriate courts.
With the ruling passed by a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna SC Sharma earlier this week, the special leave petition of the CCP challenging the Bombay High Court ruling which had directed the CCP to rehabilitate the meat traders, was disposed of.
The CCP had demolished the building built in the mid-1980s during the reign of former mayor Francisco (Baschik) Branco when the capital's civic body was a municipal council.
The CCP recently had passed a resolution by which it had agreed to allocate space alongside the fish vendor's shed on similar terms as a sopo-like arrangement which it presented before the Apex Court.
However, former additional solicitor general (ASG) Atmaram Nadkarni who was the counsel for the meat traders argued that they be permitted to install fridges, mincers and mincing machines with access to electricity and water and the area allotted be enclosed and secured.
Justices Nagarathna and Sharma permitted these additional facilities but in the ruling recorded that these would be temporary in nature and declined to interfere with other lessees of the demolished building and directed that their seeking to enforce their lease rights may be redressed via civil suits in appropriate courts.
Sources in the CCP said, the Apex Court's verdict was a shot in the arm for the civic body as much as the relief was restricted to the six meat traders who occupied stalls on the ground floor of the building.
"Other traders from the top floors of the building have not got any relief. To establish their credentials and get their lease rights, these traders some of whom were dubiously occupying space, will have to take recourse to filing individual civil suits," a top CCP official said.
The official added that one of the floors of the demolished building was occupied by a former CCP councillor who during his term had influenced past officials of the Corporation to 'regularise' his lease holding in the building.
