This story is from November 3, 2006
NEW DELHI: With traders overplaying their hand by going on the rampage in the Capital, the Centre appeared to be in a fix over the Friday deadline set by the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee for resumption of the sealing drive even as the court itself offered no relief on Thursday.
The Group of Ministers (GoM) had the last word when it announced on Thursday that sealings won’t be possible on Friday.
However, to keep the momentum of their agitation alive, the traders have organised a big yagna at Ramlila Grounds on Friday and will also hold dharnas at market places.
MCD and the Union urban development ministry had approached the apex court, asking it to take up the case on a priority basis. But the court showed no urgency and refused to take it up before Monday.
While the Centre had hoped that the 'law and order' issue would give it an alibi to seek a reprieve, the court refused to give in to traders’ strong-arm tactics and refused to relax the deadline, putting the ball squarely back in the government’s court.
The response of the apex court, which was followed by an identical direction from the monitoring committee to MCD to resume sealings on Friday, came as a big surprise to the government.
The anxiety was evident when the GoM met in the evening to review the situation. While the ministerial panel announced that sealings would not be possible because of the situation in the city, discussions at the meeting reflected the assessment that the brazen recourse to violence by traders may have upset calculations. "We cannot be a party to such blatant attempts to subvert the law," law minister H R Bhardwaj told the meeting.
The Group of Ministers which is overseeing the issue has decided not to resume the sealing of unauthorised commercial establishments until Monday. The decision came after seeing the current tense situation in New Delhi.

The Group of Ministers is headed by Home minister Shivraj Patil and comprised of Law minister H R Bhardwaj, Delhi CM Sheila Dikhit, Union Urban Development minister S Jaipal Reddy and his deputy Ajay Makan.

S Jaipal Reddy told reporters that it is very difficult to conduct the sealing drive in the city under these circumstances. He made the statement after a meeting of Group of Ministers.

The Supreme Court had already sent the notice to Municipal Corporation of Delhi to resume the sealing drive from Thursday. They will approach the apex court on Friday and will apprise the court about the difficulties in carrying out the sealing drive in these circumstances where the traders are going on strike and creating situation of tension in the capital.

Supreme Court's Monitoring committee called on the MCD to resume the sealing of unauthorised shops in the city on Friday.