Sealing: SC extends date for affidavits till Jan 31

New Delhi, Oct 18: The Supreme Court today extended till January 31 next year the date for filing affidavits by those traders who are protected by the last month notifications stating therein that they will stop the misuser if the impugned notifications were quashed by the apex court as unconstitutional.

The court, however, refused to grant any relief to 44,000 traders who have filed affidavits earlier stating therein that they will stop the misuser by June 30 this year meaning thereby that these traders shall have to close down on November 1, 2006 as per the order dated September 29.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice C K Thakker and Justice R V Raveendran, however, refused to recall the restraint order directing the government not to issue any further notification without the permission of the apex court.

The court, however, clarified that the order dated September 29 would not apply to any notification in respect of the Master Plan 2021 meaning, thereby the government is free to issue any notification with regard to the plan.

The court in its order said, ''We were not concerned with the Master Plan 2021 in our order dated September 29.'' The court also directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to file its report with regard to the illegal constructions and also directed the MCD to file, within six weeks, with regard to the illegal buildings having four and more floors coming up in Gautam Nagar area of South Delhi in blatant violation of building bye-laws.

At one stage, the Chief Justice told the government, ''It is an admitted fact that there have been wholesale violations of building bye-laws and the idea of issuing directions was to check such violations. The rule of law is a part of the basic structure. If we do not check such violations, we will be violating the oath we have taken to protect the constitution of the country.'' When Solicitor General G E Vahanvati sought extension of three months, the Chief Justice remarked in lighter vein that ''perhaps you want it after Jaunaury 2007''.

It is worth mentioning here that Justice Sabharwal is due to retire on Januray 14 next year.

And perhaps today was the last hearing of the sealing case by the present Chief Justice as he has fixed the hearing in the matter in Feburary next year.

The court also made it clear that it has not stopped the government from issuing further notification completely, The only pre-condition is that the government will have to inform the court about the fresh notification with complete details and seek its permission.

About three lakh traders spread over the city will benefit by today's extension of time as earlier they were supposed to file affidavits or on before November 10.

The government earlier pleaded that in view of the large number of traders who have to file affidavits, such a Herculean task cannot be accomplished within such a short period of time as there are only 6,000 architects in the city available for issuing certificates to the traders.

The court also accepted the recommendations of the monitoring committee that liquor shops operating in markets of residential areas may not be sealed.

The court disposed of both the applications of the Centre as well as the applications of traders who have filed affidavits.

The court, however, accepted the recommendations of the monitoring committee, saying all shop owners, whose establishments fall in the 22 permitted categories and who have filed affidavits, may not be sealed.

No commercial activity will, however, be permitted in posh colonies falling under A and B categories.

UNI

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