‘Bench-hunter’ Hotel Leela told to cough up Rs 5 lakh

In a major setback for Hotel Leela, the Bombay High Court on Monday imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the Andheri-based hotel for ‘benchhunting.’

The hotel, situated near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, had petitioned the court challenging eviction notices and proceedings, initiated against it by Airports Authority of India (AAI).

A division bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Riyaz Chagla was irked with the five-star hotel for indulging in bench-hunting practices. “This is a clear abuse of the process of law. Litigants cannot indulge in bench-hunting. We deprecate such conduct of litigants,” Justice Oka said.

Accordingly, the judges imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the hotel and directed it to pay within a four weeks.

The judges were irked over submissions of the hotel’s counsel, who asked the bench not to hear their matter.

The bench noted the fact that initially the hotel had urged the Acting Chief Justice of the HC to place all its petitions before a division bench, after which, the pleas were listed before Justice Oka’s bench.

However, on Monday when the matter was called out for hearing, the five-star hotel claimed its matter must instead come up before a single-judge bench.

The counsel representing the hotel submitted, “We have filed three petitions, one challenging the eviction notice issued by AAI and another initiating eviction proceedings by the authority. Also, the third one is an arbitration petition.”

“The arbitration petition should be heard by a singlejudge bench and not a division bench. Also, the other two petitions can be clubbed along with the arbitration petition,” the counsel for the hotel, had submitted.

The AAI had in February last year issued an eviction notice to the hotel for non-payment of dues. The authority also initiated the process to evict the hotel and reclaim 29,000 sq m land, on which its structure stands. AAI issued the notice claiming the hotel flouted the agreement and had also failed to pay dues.

Meanwhile, the bench also vacated an interim order that it had granted previously, staying the eviction proceedings initiated by AAI against the hotel before an eviction officer. This means, AAI can now proceed with eviction proceedings as per provisions of Airports Authority of India Act.