Chennai: The Madras high court has directed authorities to enquire into the complaint, alleging sale of crackers on the pavements near the entrance of Island Grounds, the demarcated place for sale of crackers in the city. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan gave the directive while disposing of a public interest litigation filed by social activist Traffic Ramaswamy, which sought a direction to authorities to take action against the police for allegedly permitting the sale of crackers on the pavements on Anna Salai during this Deepavali.
The bench said the grievance of the petitioner was that on pavements sale of crackers took place against which he made complaint, but no action was taken. Counsel for the police authorities and the corporation stated that no license was given. If that be the position, then the representation of the petitioner dated October 29 requires to be enquired into and a decision taken on the same and communicated to the petitioner within one month, the bench added.
According to petitioner, nearly 10 years back on his petition, this court had demarcated the Island Grounds for sale of crackers and directed all the shop owners to shift their cracker shops to Island Grounds. While so, during this Deepavali, he noticed sale of crackers on the pavements near the entrance of Island Grounds. Without obtaining any license, such sales took place, posing danger to the pedestrians and those travelling in the vehicles in the area. Therefore, he sent a representation to the authorities and to take action against cops who failed to prevent the people from selling crackers on the pavements. But no action was taken, he added.
