CHENNAI: Public interest writ petitions cannot be used against the persons, who are protected by the orders of the courts, the Madras High Court has ruled.
The first bench of Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice M Sathyanarayanan gave the ruling, while disposing of a PIL from social worker ‘Traffic’ KR Ramaswamy, on Tuesday. The petition prayed for action against the fire cracker shop owners, who violated the licence conditions.
After going through a chart produced by the authority concerned after inspecting the cracker shops on Bunder Street, Badrian Street, Umpherson Street, Malaiappan Street and NSC Bose Road, the bench observed that all the shops have complied with the licence conditions. Where there are infractions, they are protected by interim orders of the courts, the bench said.
“In a PIL, we cannot issue directions against persons who have obtained a direction from the court and it will be for the authorities to take an appropriate stand on those matters. In so far as the shops, which have complied with the conditions, no action in any case is required,” the bench said and disposed of the petition.