NEW DELHI: With the Group of Ministers (GoM) taking a stand in favour of the traders and the affected parties, the Union Government is likely to file a review petition in the Supreme Court on October 9, seeking modification of the September 29 court order on sealing from October 31 and filing of affidavits by nearly five lakh traders covered by the September 7 notification.

Highly placed sources said that a decision to this effect was taken after a meeting betweenUnion Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy, Union Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken.

It is learnt the Ministry had also got a favourable opinion from the Law and Justice Ministry, which said that it was the prerogative of the Government to issue a notification and the court could not put a bar on its power to do that. In its petition, the Government is likely to urge the Supreme Court to modify its order of putting a bar on issuing of fresh notifications without the permission of the court, as this was clearly the domain of the executive and not the judiciary.

Similarly, the petition may also seek modification of the court order asking nearly five lakh traders covered by the September 7 notification on mixed land and commercial use category to file affidavits by November 10 with the Monitoring Committee that they would abide by the final order of the court. These traders have also been asked to file the affidavits along with a certificate by a registered architect.

The Government is of the view that by filing such an affidavit before the court, the traders would be directly accountable to the court and the sword of uncertainty would continue to hang over their heads. In such circumstances, the Government will not be able to provide relief to these traders, as after filing the affidavits, they would become directly answerable to the court and would possibly face contempt of court proceedings.

Both the Delhi Government and the Union Government have come under pressure from the traders as well as the elected representatives from the Congress party to find an amicable solution to the whole issue as continued intervention by the court was only complicating the situation and the atmosphere of uncertainty has to be removed.

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