Observing that malls are not just for shopping but also for leisure, amusement and other recreational activities, Bombay High Court has directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to permit a mall to hold a three-day ice cream festival on its premises.
A division bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and RN Laddha observed: “There is nothing objectionable and irregular if such malls utilise open spaces for organising such limited festivals for the leisure, amusement and/or enjoyment of visitors of the mall.”
Here is what the objection was:
The HC was hearing a petition filed by the R Mall Developers Pvt. Ltd challenging the refusal of the BMC to grant them a no objection certificate, or NOC, to hold an ice cream festival in the courtyard of the R City Mall at suburban Ghatkopar from April 28 to April 30. The rejection was primarily on the ground that such activity to be undertaken by the petitioners is a commercial activity not permissible at the recreational/open space of the mall.
Advocates Mayur Khandeparkar and Saket Mone, appearing for the R Mall, argued that the activity is for a limited period of about three days and only temporary stalls would be installed. They further said that the stalls would be installed by shops that already have permanent licences in the mall.
The HC, on April 26, said that there was no restriction on any temporary commercial activity under the provisions of the Development Control and Promotion Regulations for Greater Mumbai 2034 (DCPR 2034). It held that recreational activities would include amusement or enjoyment-related leisure activities.
It said that people visit malls not only for shopping but also for leisure or amusement that they would derive from visiting different areas created in the mall such as the food court, play area, cinema theatre and so on.
"Such activities are intended to benefit the public at large"
“It is thus clear that recreational activities would include amusement or enjoyment-related leisure activities. It needs no elaboration that citizens visit malls not only for the purpose of shopping but also, for leisure or for amusement..” it said.
Besides, it was not the case that some temporary unregulated commercial activity would be undertaken by the petitioner mall in the open space. “It is only an activity where the visitors of the mall would enjoy the benefit of a variety of edibles at a common open space, which, in our opinion, is a permissible recreational activity,” it said. Such activities are intended to benefit the public at large, especially in a city like Mumbai where a large segment of the population would be interested in such events.
“Certainly, such temporary activity subject to any other compliances is required to be permitted, so that the open spaces can also be utilized, as permissible under law,” the bench added.
The court then asked the BMC to grant NOC to the mall.
