- (1.)THE Vriddhachalam Town Vegetable Daily Market Merchants Welfare Association, represented by one V. Pakkirisamy has filed the present writ petition in W. P. No. 21484 of 2007 seeking for the relief of issuance of writ of certiorari to call for the records of the first respondent the State of Tamil Nadu represented by the Secretary to Government, Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department in G. O. Ms. 78 dated 7. 6. 2007 and quash the said G. O. dated 7. 6. 2007.
(2.)THE said writ petition came to be filed on the ground that the members of the Petitioner association were having their shops in the market conducted by the second respondent Municipality in the land owned by Arulmigu Vridhagiriswarar Temple. The land was leased out by the temple to the Municipality upto the year 1999. After the expiry of the lease period in the year 1999, the Municipality handed over possession of the market to the Vridhagiriswarar Temple and a public market has been constructed at Kattukoodalur Road by the Municipality. The shopkeepers, who were doing vegetable vending in the earlier market were continuing their business in the land owned by the Vridhagiriswarar Temple. Now, the Municipality has constructed a new market. The Municipality directed the shopkeepers to shift their shops to the new market. However, the members of the petitioner Association were not inclined to shift their shops to the new market and that caused the petitioner Association to file writ petition in W. P. No. 16351 of 1997 for issuance of mandamus not to dispossess them from the market located in the land, which belongs to the temple. The writ petition was disposed of on the ground that the Municipality is not closing the market where the shopkeepers are doing vegetable vending but only they are shifting the market of the Municipality from the land of the Vridhagiriswarar temple to the newly constructed market. That cannot legally be interfered with. That order has been confirmed by the Division Bench of this Court in the writ appeal in W. A. No. 1560 of 1999 dt. 24. 8. 1999 which was filed at the instance of the writ petitioner herein. In the meanwhile, the members of the petitioner Association also filed civil suit in O. S. No. 469 of 1999 on the file of the District Munsif Court, Vridhachalam for permanent injunction restraining the Municipality from evicting the members of the petitioner association from the shops located in the market, which is functioning in the land belonging to the Vridhagiriswarar Temple without obtaining any permission from the Government. That suit was decreed on 30. 6. 2004. The appeal filed by the Municipality against the said decree was also dismissed. In the aforesaid circumstances, the Government has passed the G. O. Ms. No. 78 dated 7. 6. 2007 giving permission to the Municipality to close the public market, which is being run by the members of the petitioner Association at the land belonging to the Vridhagiriswarar Temple. This Govt. Order was put in issue in the writ petition on the ground that the market referred to in the Government Order is not a public market, but a private market and hence the Government Order is not in accordance with the statutory provisions. In the writ petition interim order came to be passed on 24. 7. 2007 to the effect that the respondents 2 and 3 in the writ petition were permitted to open the new market complex constructed at Kattukoodalur Road and also to lease out the shops either by way of conducting public auction or otherwise, but not to disturb the petitioner's members in carrying of their business in the existing old market. The correctness of the said order is now canvassed by filing the writ appeals.
(3.)WE heard Mr. AR. L. Sundaresan learned counsel appearing for the Municipality and also Mr. Kannan appearing for the writ petitioner/the first respondent in the writ appeals.