AmitAnand.ChoudharyNew Delhi: A Panaji hotel has been asked by the Supreme Court to pay nearly Rs 2.4 crore to the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) for illegally constructing six rooms and renting them out for eleven years despite orders to demolish them.The court fixed the daily rent of each room at Rs 1,000 and calculated the hotel's earnings over the period to fix the amount to be paid to the CCP.A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices D Y Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul said that Inacio Fernandes, owner of Hotel Menino Regency, misused the judicial process by not complying with the order of the Panaji Bench of the Bombay High Court for demolishing the illegal structures, and thus forfeited all earnings made from the six rooms."It is not possible for us to allow an individual to misuse the judicial process for personal gains. We would venture an assessment of the profits that might have been earned by the appellant for the last 11 years. We would assume, that the daily rent of each room would be at least Rs 1,000. In such view of the matter, the appellant would have earned approximately Rs 2,40,90,000 = (Rs 1000 x 6 (rooms) x 365 (days in a year) x 11 (years). Since the appellant has been benefited to the above extent, he must reimburse the amount, representing the profits earned by him to the corporation," the bench said.The court directed the owner to deposit the amount within two months, failing which, it would be recovered by the corporation as arrears of land revenue.The litigation over the unauthorised construction began in 2004 when a PIL was filed in the high court. The HC in 2005 directed the owner to remove the structures which violated the approved plan. The hotel owner moved an application before North Goa Planning and Development Authority for regularisation of the unauthorised structures. The Authority allowed structures constructed on the balconies but directed demolition of six rooms on the fifth floor within a period of sixty days.As the owner failed to comply with the order of the HC and the Authority, contempt proceedings were initiated against him and the court directed demolition of the structures. He then rushed to the SC in 2007.Taking strong exception to the conduct of the owner, the SC said: "We are satisfied that the appellant has misused the judicial process, whereby he neither complied with the undertaking given to the high court nor complied with the terms and conditions of the regularisation/compounding order. He, therefore, used six rooms on the fifth floor for the last 11 years to his benefit merely because this court had protected him from contempt proceedings, initiated against him by the high court," the bench said.

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