The waterfront eateries in Howrah. A Telegraph picture

The high court on Friday declined to pass an interim stay on the decision of the state pollution control board’s appellate authority to close down eight eateries on the Hooghly banks near Howrah station.

Last September, the board, following a recommendation from a panel appointed by the high court to monitor Ganga pollution, had issued a notification asking the hotels to pack up. The charge was that effluents from the eateries were polluting the Hooghly.

Challenging the notification, the hotel-owners had moved an appeal before the appellate authority. On April 8, the authority dismissed the appeal and asked the eateries to close down by June 7.

The owners moved the high court against the authority’s decision and their petition came up for hearing before the division bench of Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice P.C. Ghosh on Friday.

Shaktinath Mukherjee, who represented the owners, submitted that the effluents from the eateries were not polluting the Hooghly. “Still, my clients have decided to set up a plant to treat the effluents before releasing them into the river.”

Mukherjee prayed for a stay on the appellate authority’s decision and an order to test the viability of the proposed plant. The bench, while refusing to issue the stay, decided to hear about the plant later and asked the board to file an affidavit on the hotel-owners’ proposal.