Kolkata: A Calcutta High Court judge has observed that some of the city’s earliest surviving buildings, including those at 9, 10 and 11 Jawaharlal Nehru Road, are the pride of Kolkata and that it is the duty of everyone, including the court, to ensure they are not damaged.The three-storey building at 9 JL Nehru Road was constructed in 1787 and is regarded as the oldest standing private building in Kolkata. Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s Heritage Conservation Committee has described it as “one of the oldest surviving buildings in Kolkata and a significant example of functional architecture built during the early days of the East India Co and associated with the early phase of colonial Kolkata”.Located at the intersection of JL Nehru Road and SN Banerjee Road, the property was once owned by Baghdadi Jewish merchant and property developer David Joseph Ezra. After Independence, it was purchased by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Following the nationalisation of the private insurance sector in 1956, ownership passed to Life Insurance Corporation of India.Tenants moved court after alleging that LIC had neither carried out repairs nor allowed them to undertake restoration work, leaving the building in a dilapidated state. Metro Railway, which built the Blue Line station’s gate No. 4 on the premises in the early 1980s, and KMRC, which bored a tunnel beneath the building around 2019, have both indicated that the brick-and-lime-mortar structure remains structurally sound.Conservation architect Partha Ranjan Das, who was asked by KMC to assess the building, said: “Given the antiquity of the building, it is amazingly stable despite no repairs being carried out for over seven decades. Sheer apathy has led to its current condition. Given its history, it should definitely be repaired and restored.”While KMC has endorsed this view, LIC has contested it and sought vacation of the building.Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma, while noting that the safety of people working in the building was also an important issue, directed the constitution of a committee to examine its condition and submit a report. He observed: “…it is an important matter where some of the prestigious buildings of Kolkata are involved. Such buildings are the pride of any city and it is the duty of everyone including the Court to ensure that no damage is caused to such buildings.”Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), which promotes heritage conservation, has also called for the preservation of the building.During the hearing, counsel for KMC submitted that the report filed by LIC was incomplete and that the corporation was not taking any steps to repair or restore the structure.The committee directed by the High Court will include the KMC commissioner, the KMC director general of the building department, a senior officer nominated by the Kolkata Police commissioner and a senior official appointed by the LIC chairman. It will function under the supervision of a senior officer appointed by the state chief secretary. The KMC commissioner will appoint a senior officer as the committee’s member secretary. The committee has been asked to submit its report by Dec 9, 2026.
