Summary:
The authorities at the most can insist on keeping enough parking spaces in their complexes, but cannot restrain them from charging parking fees.Justice Bela Trivedi is likely to hear these petitions on Thursday. Under no law, the police authorities have got power to stop them from collecting such charges. AHMEDABAD: Owners of malls and multiplexes in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat have approached Gujarat high court against different notifications issued by police commissioners prohibiting them from collecting parking fees from visitors.A couple of commercial complexes in Surat had been charging fees for parking vehicles in their parking areas from their visitors.However, following the PIL on the issues of road quality, traffic and parking, police had ruled that malls and multiplexes cannot levy parking charges on visitors because it is obligatory on the mall managements to provide visitors’ parking. The police commissioners in different cities issued notifications prohibiting malls and multiplexes from collecting parking charges.Meanwhile, a PIL from Surat also objected to the malls in the city charging parking fees on the ground that they are exempted from paying taxes for the areas created for parking.Sources said that the mall owners in their petitions have questioned police commissioners’ notifications and asserted that collecting parking fees from visitors is their right..