A fire broke out in this building in kolkata last month — Photo —— Suparna Goswami
Kolkata : The state fire and emergency services is likely to conduct an inspection at Mirza Ghalib street’s Florence Mansion–where a fire at a guest house on second floor on Aug 19 claimed nine lives–on Monday, after Calcutta High Court order to submit a report on whether a HC advocate, who runs a chamber on first floor, can have limited access. It has 20 staff and eight advocates working there. His lawyer’s argument opposing Aug 19 noted sealing the entire building as the fire occurred in one unit–approximately 700 square feet on the second floor, which is approximately 5,000 square feet. Justice Krishna Rao, on Sept 3, asked the state counsel whether it would be possible to allow limited access. The state was directed to submit a report detailing a three fold question–whether Bhattacharjee’s chamber was affected, can it be renovated for running his office and is it at all possible to run the office from the premises–by Sept 8.
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But without any assessment of the same, Bhattacharjee was made to vacate the building by the fire dept for it posing “imminent” danger to its occupant in an hour. The first floor, according to the counsel, was unaffected. “Lawyer without a chamber and without running briefs,” his counsel submitted highlighting Bhattacharjee’s predicament.
Niladri Bhattacharjee has a chamber in the first floor of the building. His counsel, senior advocate Joydip Kar submitted that the office has four fire extinguishers. Bhattacharjee’s counsel submitted that his brief, client documents and other legal documents necessary for him to appear for his clients before HC, lower court or tribunals are at present in the building’s first floor which has been made inaccessible to him. He sought for limited access and if he could operate his chamber for restrictive hours with just fans and lights cutting down on the air conditioner. The Additional Advocate General (AAG) Bilwadal Bhattacharyya submitted that the same could only be determined after any inspection. Download the TOI App.