COIMBATORE: The proposal to shift an IMFL outlet from the National Highway to a residential area in Samalapuram has been dropped, the first bench of the Madras High Court was informed on Wednesday.
Advocate-General R Muthukumaraswamy made a mention to this effect when PILs by advocates K Balu and A P Suryaprakasam and activist K R Ramaswamy and others came up before the bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar on Wednesday afternoon.
The AG also told the bench that necessary departmental action has already been initiated against the Additional DSP, who assaulted an agitating woman at Samalapuram on Tuesday.
Recording the submissions, the bench disposed of the PILs with a direction to the authorities to comply with the rules relating to location/relocation of shops, strictly. The bench also directed the authorities concerned to provide proper medical treatment to the injured persons at the State’s expense.
According to Balu, president of the Advocates Forum for Social Justice, who had earlier moved the Supreme Court, the apex court in its judgment dated March 31 last had ordered closure of Tasmac shops along National and State Highways, but the authorities ran several shops without complying with the order. Belatedly, they took steps in a hurried manner to relocate the shops in residential areas and the same was objected to by the locals.
When the authorities attempted to shift one such shop in Samalapuram on April 11, the locals objected. They were beaten up by police and they sustained injuries. This is not an isolated incident. Similar agitations took place in other places too. The rules relating to location/relocation of Tasmac shops contemplated in the TN Liquor Vending Shops Rules were not followed by the authorities, he contended.
Petitioners prayed for a direction to the Medical Superintendent, District Headquarters Hospital, Tirupur, to provide treatment to the victims — Eswari of Iyyampalayam and Sivaganesh of Samalapuram — free of cost and to restrain Tasmac from establishing its shops against the wishes of locals across the state.