The blaze at Nandaram market complex. A Telegraph file picture

Cochar Plywood Limited, which owns the Nandaram Market building, moved the high court on Tuesday demanding the constitution of an expert committee to assess the stability of the structure.

“The court should ask the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) to set up a committee of experts to assess the stability of the building instead of demolishing a portion of it,” advocate Shaktinath Mukherjee, who represented the company, told the court.

The lawyer also sought an order allowing his client to participate in the assessment process.

Mukherjee claimed that the CMC was planning to demolish “certain portions of the building”, after the 100-hour fire in January. “But the CMC should not take such a decision without assessing the stability of the building,” he said.

The CMC lawyer, Aloke Ghosh, opposed the plea and said the owner of the building had no right to move such a petition as both the high court and the Supreme Court had observed that the portion above the sixth floor of the building was built without the civic body’s sanction.

“The CMC, on June 14, 1957, had sanctioned a five-storeyed building and basement. Even the sixth floor of the building is illegal as it was constructed after the sanctioned plan expired,” claimed Ghosh.

The lawyer added: “When the CMC issued a demolition order of the 15 illegal floors, the owner had moved the high court. When the court refused to pass an injunction on the CMC notification, the owner had filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court. But the apex court also dismissed the SLP along with the original petition.”

Justice Jayanta Biswas adjourned the hearing till April 28.