Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: In a significant move to address the issue of unauthorized dance bars in Calangute, the High Court has ordered a fresh site inspection to be conducted by the Deputy Town Planner of Mapusa-Bardez.
This directive comes ahead of a scheduled hearing on February 20, where both the applicant seeking to deseal the premises and the original petitioners, Sudesh Mayekar and another, will be informed.
The Deputy Town Planner has been tasked with preparing a comprehensive report based on the rival claims by March 3. This report will be crucial in determining the legitimacy of the structures used as dance bars, which have been at the centre of a legal dispute. Nasim Parvaiz Jafran had filed a miscellaneous civil application to deseal the premises, prompting the Court to take this step.
The High Court had previously ordered the desealing of premises that lacked occupancy certificates or necessary permissions from authorities in January last year.
The Court emphasized that without these mandatory certificates, no activities could be conducted on the premises.
The hearing for the PIL writ petition has been posted for further consideration on March 5.
Senior advocate S S Kantak, arguing on behalf of the applicant, contended that the structure in question existed prior to 1970, making the Goa Land Development and Building Constructions Regulations 2010 inapplicable.
He also pointed out that the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) had found the structure to be beyond 500 meters of the High Tide Line (HTL) and requested that the applicant be allowed to operate the business by dealing with the premises.
However, Adv Rohit Bras De Sa, representing the original petitioners, argued that the structure was newly built and relied on an application for regularization, which implied that the structure was unauthorized. Kantak countered this by stating that the application for regularization had been withdrawn.
