The Calcutta high court on Monday provided temporary relief to the LMNOQ Skybar with an interim stay on further demolition on the premises.

Hearing on a petition moved by counsel Sabyasachi Chowdhury, representing the restaurant, Justice Gaurang Kanth instructed the Kolkata Municipal Corporation not to carry out further demolition on the premises.

Advocate Chowdhury informed the high court that while the KMC authorities had served a closure notice, there was no warning on the demolition was carried out in the premises on Friday.

The petitioner also stated the electricity supply to the rooftop restaurant was disconnected and without power they were unable to remove the stuff stocked.

Referring to the fire and trade licenses held by the popular restaurant, the counsel said an application for regularisation of the rooftop structure was pending with the civic body, and requested for a stay on the demolition.

Justice Kanth observed the pending application for regularisation suggested the rooftop operation was illegal, but agreed the demolition could not be carried out on the basis of a stop-work notice and issued a verbal stay order.

The stay on demolition is till Thursday when the case will come up for hearing before the court.

Two days after a fire claimed 14 lives at a hotel in Burrabazar, chief minister Mamata Banerjee made a surprise inspection of the restaurants in Park Street.

On-the-spot Mamata announced the closure of six restaurants within the Celica Park on Park Street, including LMNOQ- located on the 12th floor of Celica House along with The Black Cat Lounge, Moti Mahal Delux, Barbeque Nation and two others.

The decision was followed by a city-wide ban on 83 such outlets in Park Street, Shakespeare Sarani, Bhowanipore, Tollygunge, New Alipore, Chetla, Beliaghata, Tangra, Burrabazar, Girish Park, Hare Street, New Market, Anandapur, Pragati Maidan, Jadavpur, Garfa, Netaji Nagar, Kasba, Behala, Parnasree, Beniapukur, Topsia, Ballygunge, Gariahat, Tiljala, Lake, Karaya, Rabindra Sarobar, NPPS, Watgunge and Rajabagan police station areas.

While she was at Park Street on Thursday afternoon, the chief minister had said, “I heard about this from someone who recently visited a restaurant here. He said 4,000-5,000 people won’t be able to come out of the building using the narrow stairs and requested that I take immediate action. There are two elevators, but people aren’t aware that they would not work in case of a fire.”

On Friday, part of the structure was demolished.

The LMNOQ owner Rajeev Nathany did not respond to calls from The Telegraph Online.

The head of National Restaurant Association ofIndia’ Kolkata chapter, Abhimanyu Maheshwari said, “We don’t want to overstatethe implications, we will await further clarity at Thursday’s hearing.”