Closure of 500 Tasmac shops | Madras High Court refuses to interfere with T.N. government’s policy decision
The Hindu
Madras HC refuses to interfere with TN govt's policy to close 500 liquor shops in 5 regions. Petitioners claimed losses, but AAG argued they had no locus standi. Judge gave liberty to petitioners to make representations to govt, who will deal with them in accordance with law.
The Madras High Court has refused to interfere with a policy decision taken by the Tamil Nadu government to close down 500 retail liquor shops run by the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem and Tiruchi regions.
Justice Krishnan Ramasamy held that the court could not interfere with such a policy decision especially at the instance of property owners who had let out their premises to Tasmac, since the relationship between them was just that of a landlord and tenant.
The judge dismissed a batch of writ petitions which sought to quash the closure orders passed by Tasmac, and to issue a consequent direction to the corporation to continue to run the shops. The petitioners had claimed that they would incur huge losses due to this sudden closure.
On the other hand, Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran questioned the very locus standi of the writ petitioners to question a policy decision of the government. He said, the landlords could not file writ petitions before the High Court to ventilate their grievances.
Concurring with him, the judge wrote: “This court is of the considered view that the relationship between the parties is only that of landlord-tenant whereby the tenant is entitled to take a decision to close their business. If any owner is aggrieved by such decision, the remedy is to approach the appropriate forum.”
He, however, gave liberty to the writ petitioners to make representations to the State government ventilating their grievances and said, it would be up to the authorities concerned to deal with such representations in accordance with the law.
While residents are worried over deaths due to diarrhoea in Vijayawada, officials still grapple to find the root cause. Contaminated drinking water supplied by VMC officials is the reason, insist people in the affected areas, but officials insist that efforts are on to identify the disease and that those with symptoms other than diarrhoea too are visiting the health camps.