MADURAI
Bringing relief to a women’s self-help group, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday permitted it to continue operating four fair price shops in Virudhunagar district and restrained the district administration from taking control of the shops till further orders.
Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana allowed the Aatral Women Federation to continue operating the shops at V. Karisalkulam, Poombidakai, Thiruvalarnallur and S. Nankoor in Tiruchuli taluk of Virudhunagar district.
The district administration had passed an order to transfer the control of the shops to the Cooperative Department. The order was challenged by the petitioner, A. Chitra of Aatral Women Federation of Tiruchuli.
The petitioner said the federation was given permission to run the co-operative society ration shops in Tiruchuli taluk and it had been running the shops for the past 20 years. There were no complaints about their operation, she said.
Under such circumstances, at the instigation of certain local political bigwigs the district administration initiated steps to transfer the management of the ration shops from the SHG under the pretext of having received complaints from public, the petitioner said.
Subsequently, without issuing any notice or conducting any inquiry, the officials took away the keys of the shops from the employees and locked the shops. This would deprive the women of their livelihood, the petitioner said.
