'Seal shops in illegal colonies'

Supreme Court cracks whip again, government has three weeks to act, reports Satya Prakash.

The sealing squad is back. The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the sealing of commercial establishments in 1,500 unauthorised colonies in Delhi. The time limit set: just three weeks.

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A three-judge bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat directed that “all commercial premises in unauthorised colonies shall stop functioning except 24 categories allowed in regular colonies.” Shops measuring 20 square meter would be exempt from the sealing drive in unauthorised colonies as was the order for other colonies, it said. The ruling would affect over 40 lakh people living in these colonies.

The order led to a heated exchange between Justice Arijit Pasayat and Additional Solicitor-General Vikas Singh.

Singh said the court could take up the issue of misuse of premises in unauthorised colonies only after the Government regularised them.

Only then could one identify the misuse, he said. He also questioned how the court could pass such an order without there being any petition before it and without hearing either the Centre or the people likely to be affected by the order.