Owners of three rooftop bars and restaurants who attended a hearing at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) headquarters on Tuesday have to submit their written submissions by June 11, civic body officials said.

Owners of at least two of the restaurants told the officials conducting the hearing that they were ready to make changes if the authorities found anything unlawful on their premises, but they should be allowed to resume operations at the earliest, said a KMC official.

The appellants said their outlets had many employees, and if they remained shut for long, hundreds of staff members and their families would suffer.

Besides officials of the KMC, officials from the state excise directorate and officers from police and fire services attended the hearing.

“We have asked the owners to submit their written submissions by June 11. They will give us the documents they have, the licences available with them, and if they have any prayer,” said a KMC official.

On May 6, Calcutta High Court ordered the KMC to give the petitioners — three rooftop joints and the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) — a hearing before taking any coercive action against them, unless there was an immediate danger to people’s lives or property.

On Tuesday, a representative from the NRAI’s secretariat also attended the hearing.

“One of the owners sought more time. The other two owners said they would make all necessary changes. They wanted the KMC and the other authorities to visit their premises and point out if there was any unauthorised structure,” said the official.

The owners also reasoned that they had obtained trade licences and certificates to serve liquor, but they were not aware that they needed a separate permit from the KMC to set up a bar or a restaurant on the terrace.

“They said they had purchased or taken on rent the terrace space from the owner of the building. They said they were not aware that a permission from the KMC was required to set up a restaurant on the roof,” said the official.

Civic body officials have said before that a trade licence, called a certificate of enlistment, was issued based on self-declaration by a person trying to open a business. The certificate has a clause that the owner would take all other necessary statutory permissions.