KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) to deposit an amount of `25 lakh with the government treasury to compensate shop owners for loss in business in the wake of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup matches at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
The amount will also be used to pay compensation to the employees who work in these shops.
The court issued the order while upholding the decision of the GCDA and the state government to ask the shop owners to close down their business establishments at the commercial complex in the stadium.
The court said the shop owners will endure loss for no fault of theirs as the administration failed to act with promptitude in notifying the lessees reasonably in advance.
The court observed they should be compensated immediately as the closure of shops will deprive them of their livelihood.The court also ordered to constitute a committee consisting of the member secretary, Kerala State Legal Service Authority (KELSA); director, Alternate Disputes Resolution Centre, High Court of Kerala, and the District Collector before whom the individual petitioners can raise their claims regarding the loss sustained with substantiating materials.
The state should compensate such losses to 75 per cent of the loss computed by the committee.
“On such computation being made, the District Collector shall immediately release the amount to the petitioners,” the court said. The GCDA should deposit the amount with the District Collector within a week, which shall be retained in a separate account. The administration will be entitled to close down the premises, and the shop owners should cooperate with it. The shop owners should close down the individual businesses and the office of the District Collector shall seal the locks and the keys shall be handed over to the District Collector, it said.
The court said the argument of the petitioners that no public interest was involved cannot be acceded. The public interest was not in conducting the games, but in ensuring the protection of the players and the officials connected with the games and the event and the spectators who are expected to throng the stadium. The court cannot close its eye to the fame the successful holding of an event of this magnitude would bring to the state and the country at the international level, and the generated fund that could be put to the promotion of sports and games within the state, the order stated.