The High Court on Thursday directed Hotel Airlines off Lavelle Road to close down its operations until further orders.





The petitioner, K Diwakar Rao, who manages the hotel had sought a stay on the order of Health Officer, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) dated March 3, 2014, that had rejected his application for licence.



Another order of the Standing Committee order dated March 5, 2014 had directed the hotel to close down business within seven days. The licence had been refused on the grounds that he was not eligible for it. The land on which the restaurant stands is owned by Muthavalli Wakf properties and it was leased out to India Wood Industry (IWI) to establish the hotel. A couple of years ago, IWI had communicated to BBMP that it was not interested in running the restaurant anymore.



The petitioner, Diwakar filed an application before BBMP seeking licence to run the hotel. But BBMP health officer rejected it, stating the applicant did not meet the requirement under law, that includes no objection certificate (NOC) and meeting fire safety norms.



In his petition, the petitioners contended that no due process of law was followed while BBMP rejected his application for licence.



Stating that the livelihood of hundreds of employees depending on the business and customers who entered into long-term contract with the hotel would be affected, he submitted that the action of the respondents was illegal and sought quashing of the said orders. When the court was about to pass its order, the petitioner submitted that he will file an undertaking to cease operation from Saturday.



Justice A N Venugopala Gowda recorded the submission of the petitioner and ordered the closure.