Petitions on bandh: HC to pronounce orders tomorrow

Chennai, Sep 27 (UNI) The Madras High Court will pronounce orders tomorrow on writ petitions filed by the main Opposition AIADMK and the Janata Party seeking to restrain various political parties in Tamil Nadu from going ahead with their plan to hold a bandh on October 1.

When the petitions, filed by AIADMK Presidium Chairman E Madhusudhanan and Janata Party President Subramaniam Swamy, came up for hearing before the First Bench, comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice P Jyothimani, posted the case for orders tomorrow after hearing arguments from Advocate General R Viduthalai and defence counsels.

In his argument, Mr Viduthalai said it was not a state-sponsored bandh and it was called by the political parties.

He said the government would maintain complete law and order, ensure free movement of men and materials and take strict action if there was any untoward incident.

AIADMK Counsel N Jothi said the decision to hold a state-wide bandh was announced by the DMK-led DPA to demand expeditious implementation of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP).

He said the Supreme Court was seized of the matter and the Centre had told the Apex Court that the project would be put on hold till all alternative alignments were considered for implementation.

''Organising bandh at this stage will paralyse the public transport system and banking operations'', he added.

The bandh proposal was ''most inappropriate'' as a total closure on October 1 would mean four holidays for offices, he said, adding that the Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police were expected to maintain complete law and order on the bandh day.

Citing the Supreme Court orders against such bandh calls, he said the political parties should be restrained from going ahead with the proposed bandh.

After recording their submissions, the bench said it would pronounce the orders tomorrow.

UNI