[MipRippoomamn]

The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) on Tuesday defered the hearing of traders of T Nagar who had approached the authority requesting desealing of their buildings and had raised their voice against the approach of the CMDA in this regard at the monitoring committee meeting held on Tuesday.

The meeting had been convened after the Madras high court’s November 21 order asking all shop owners, whose premises had been sealed in T Nagar, to submit details to the high court-appointed monitoring committee for desealing their buildings.

The monitoring committee had asked the merchants to approach the CMDA with the documents to support their claims of compliance with the norms. The traders of T Nagar had thus filed appeals with CMDA requesting that their buildings be de-sealed before the Christmas and New Year season.

However, the meeting of the monitoring committee was convened only on January 3 (Tuesday), the same day that the hearing of the petition filed by T Nagar traders challenging the high court’s direction came up in the Supreme Court.

The monitoring committee decided to defer the hearings of the merchants based on the Supreme Court’s direction.

“While filing an appeal to the CMDA, traders have also had filed a petition at apex court, challenging the high court’s order, which has stated that it was not proper on the part of the high court to relegate the petitioner’s desealing applications to the monitoring committee,” said a CMDA official.

“We have decided to defer the hearings for those who appealed till January 2, to another date after the Supreme Court’s direction on Tuesday,” said a monitoring committee member.

“The representatives of trade unions have raised their voice in the meeting against the delay in the desealing process and appealed that they be allowed to open the shops before Pongal,” Vikramaraja, president, State Traders Federartion told DC on Tuesday.

-dc chn