A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal on Monday refused to give any reprieve to traders operating commercial establishments from residential premises and ordered the authorities to resume sealing operations against such traders.
The apex court directed the Union government and the Delhi government to provide adequate security to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to seal the unauthorised shops in residential areas.
In his order, the Chief Justice at one stage said: "If the sanctity of the Constitution is to be saved, then such force, whether police or otherwise, shall be provided by the Central government and the Delhi government."
"I am worried about what may happen to the orders of high courts and lower courts if Supreme Court's orders are not obeyed," he said.
"Will the matters be decided on the streets than in the courts," he queried, adding that it was the duty of the government and not the court to maintain law and order. The bench stated that the sealing operations will continue under the supervision of the monitoring committee, which will submit a weekly report.
The group of ministers headed by Home Minister Shivraj Patil is likely to meet in the evening to take stock of the Supreme Court order.
The Delhi police has tightened security across the national capital to avoid any untoward incident.
Delhi police deployed Rapid Action Force and increased presence of security personnel in all the sensitive areas to keep the situation under control.
Earlier, Confederation of All India Traders general secretary Praveen Khandelwal had said: "Our future course of action will depend on the outcome of the Supreme Court hearing followed by a meeting of the Group of Ministers in the evening. The government will also deliberate on the issue in case of an adverse order."
More from rediff