In the year 2019, Gujarat high court had ruled that malls and multiplexes should not collect the parking fees as they are under statutory obligation to provide vehicle parking space.
With the Mushrooming of malls trend across the country there are more options for the consumers with everything available at one place but there are Malls who charges a very exorbitant fees for the parking facilities which is against the law and rights of the consumers.
The Live Law postal has recently published the update on this malpractice saying that according to the new ruling of the Kerala high court, the mall cannot charge the parking fees from Cars and the service needs to be free.
According to the reports, the collection of the Parking fee is very common practice in the malls across the country and looking at this one of the consumer had filed a petition in the Kerala High Court.
The reports says that the High Court has received many such pleas against the charging of parking fees by the Malls and decided to take the matter seriously. The court believes that collection of parking fees by the Malls is not appropriate and it must be stopped.
The matter came up in the Kerala High Court agains the recently opened Lulu International shopping Malls in Kerala. The pleas filled by the several consumer alleges that charging the parking fee for parking in the mall is illegal.
According to the High Court, As per the Building Rules, parking space is a part of the building, and a building permit is issued on the condition that there will be a parking space. Based on this undertaking a building is constructed. After construction, whether the owner can collect a parking fee is the question. Prima face, I am of the opinion that it is not possible. This Court wants to know the stand of the Municipality on this issue.”
Justice P. V. Kunhikrishnan asked Kalamassery Municipality for their opinion of this matter and the plea would be taken up after two weeks.
The petitioner has brought to the notice of the court that Lulu Mall was collecting the parking fees without any authority.
In a response to that the senior advocate S Sreekumar, who appeared for the respondents submitted a license that was given under the Section 447 of Kerala Municipality Act. The lawyer also submitted decisions of High Court that support the respondents position. After hearing both sides, Kerala High Court directed the Municipality to file a statement to mention their stand on parking fee collected by mall for a parking space mandatory under building rules. The matter will be taken up by the court of 28 January 2022.
Based on the available information the first petition was filed by one Bosco Louis, a social worker who appeared in the case as person and another petition was filed by a film maker Pauly Vadakkan.
The report says that the filmmaker moved to the high court after he was charged Rs 20 car Parking fees when he visited the mall on December 2, 2021. The director has alleged that the mall staff closed exit gates and threatened him when he initially refused to pay the parking fee.
According to his plea the collection of parking fees was open violation of the Kerala Municipality Act and Kerala Municipality Building Rules 1994.
The plea said as per the rule, mall is a commercial complex and the place earmarked in the approved building plan for parking cannot be converted into a pay and park facility.
Meanwhile, the high court did not put any stay on the parking fees collected by the Lulu and the same is going on as usual.
In the year 2019, Gujarat high court had ruled that malls and multiplexes should not collect the parking fees as they are under statutory obligation to provide vehicle parking space.
Karnataka High Court also heard such plea seeking free car spaces in malls and multiplexes last year and refused to entertain it. The court said, “Somebody incurs a cost for maintaining the parking space at a cinema hall. How can it be free?”
