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The Kerala High Court\nrecently opined that the collection of parking fees by Lulu International\nshopping mall was not appropriate while perusing a couple of pleas that the shopping\nmall collecting parking fees from its customers was illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Court directed\nthe Municipality to file a statement on its definite stand whether a parking\nfee can be collected for a parking space mandatory under Building Rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was also observed\nthat further collection of parking fees by lulu was subject to the result of\nthis writ petition. However, it was clarified that in the meanwhile, they can\ncollect such fee at their risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first petition\nwas moved by a social worker Bosco Louis who appeared as a party in person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another petition was\nmoved by film director Pauly Vadakkan after he was charged Rs. 20 as parking\nfees when he visited the mall on December 2. Vadakkan had alleged that the mall\nstaff closed the exit gates and threatened him when he initially refused to pay\nthe amount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was contended that\ncollecting parking fees was a blatant violation of the Kerala Municipality Act\nand Kerala Municipality Building Rules 1994 since as per the rules, the mall is\na commercial complex and the place earmarked in the approved building plan for\nparking cannot be converted into a pay & park facility. If any conversion\nis made, that is a fraud on the statute and unsustainable in the eye of the\nlaw, the petitioner had submitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The petition\ncontended that parking fees were being collected by the mall since 2010 and\nthat this had to be recovered by the government. Accordingly, the plea has\nsought a declaration that collection of parking fees by the mall was illegal\napart from a refund of the Rs. 20 collected from the petitioner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2019, Delhi high court sought the stand of the South\nDelhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on a plea alleging that it had\nfailed to check some city malls from charging illegal parking fees.\nThe petition argued that in the Master Plan for Delhi, 2021, it was clarified\nthat hospitals and malls in the city could not levy any parking charges from\nvisitors, but SDMC only issued notices to a few malls and private hospitals for\nviolating the master plan adding that \u201csuch notices were nothing but an eyewash\nas no action was taken against such erring malls and hospitals\u201d. Puri\u2019s plea\nsaid that malls in Saket and Vasant Kunj, including Select City and Ambience,\nhave regularly flouted SDMC circulars with the civic agency hardly taking any\naction. Last year, disposing of Puri\u2019s plea an HC bench had taken note of\nSDMC\u2019s claim that \u201cparking space in the commercial complexes\/malls\/hospitals\nhas to be utilised free of any charge and cannot be put to commercial use by levying parking\nfees for the same\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the year 2019, Gujarat\nHigh Court ruled that malls and multiplexes should not collect parking fees as\nthey are under a statutory obligation to provide car parking space. Malls,\nmultiplexes, shopping establishments etc., have to provide parking to the\ncustomers without collecting any fee from them. The court reached the conclusion\nbased on the interpretation of provisions in Gujarat building and town planning\nlaws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subsequently, the Supreme Court, on 15 October 2019, permitted all malls and multiplexes to take \u201creasonable\u201d parking fees from visitors after providing them free parking for one hour.
Last year, the Karnataka High Court refused to entertain a plea seeking free car parking spaces in malls and multiplexes. “Somebody incurs a cost for maintaining the parking space at a cinema hall. How can it be free?”, the Karnataka High Court had orally observed, after which the petitioner chose to withdraw the petition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In totality, the question still remains ambiguous – MALLS CAN COLLECT CAR PARKING FEE??<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n BEST LAWYER<\/p>\n\n\n\n LAW FIRM<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Kerala High Court recently opined that the collection of parking fees by Lulu International shopping mall was not appropriate while perusing a couple of pleas that the shopping mall collecting parking fees from its customers was illegal. The Court directed the Municipality to file a statement on its definite stand whether a parking feeRead more about CAN SHOPPING MALLS COLLECT CAR PARKING FEE? \u2013 A BIG QUESTION<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.ethicallegal.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.ethicallegal.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.ethicallegal.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ethicallegal.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ethicallegal.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ethicallegal.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ethicallegal.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.ethicallegal.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ethicallegal.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ethicallegal.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}