New Delhi: In a relief to traders and others, the Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to stay the operation of the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, which gives a one-year moratorium on demolition and sealing of premises of commercial establishments functioning from residential areas.

The Act seeks to maintain status quo as on January 1, 2006 on demolition of unauthorised and illegal constructions as well as sealing of premises. The status quo will also apply to slum areas/jhuggis, whether or not they encroached on public land prior to January 1. With the notification of the Act, de-sealing operations have just begun.

A vacation Bench, however, issued notice to the Centre on the main petition questioning the constitutional validity of the Act as well as on the interim application seeking a stay of the operation of the Act.

It directed that the matter be listed for July 17 before a Bench headed by Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal.

When counsel for the petitioners pleaded for a stay of the operation of the Act, the Bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and R.V. Raveendransaid: "There is some difficulty. If we grant a stay, the demolitions and sealing will continue. Ultimately if we hold that the law is valid, we cannot put the clock back. On the contrary, even if de-sealing is done, the MCD [Municipal Corporation of Delhi] can always reseal the premises. Since the traders were continuing for decades, the heavens will not fall if they continue for two more months."

The petitioners — the Delhi Welfare Residents Association Joint Front and an NGO, Citizens Voice — — said Parliament had passed the legislation tobenefit the land mafia and violators of law as well as encroachers on public land at the cost of law-abiding citizens.

The Act was an attempt by parliamentarians to defeat the orders of the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court on conversion of residences into commercial places.

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