The Madras High Court on Friday granted time till December 14 for the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) to file its counter to a writ petition filed by an association of fruit traders to let them carry on their business from the wholesale market at Koyambedu here.
Justice M. Sathyanarayanan and R. Hemalatha passed the order after they were informed that the main market building was under renovation and only after the completion of the works would all the traders be allowed inside in a staggered manner after following all safety protocols.
In the affidavit, the petitioner association claimed that only 200 out of 700 wholesale fruit traders were being permitted to carry out their business in Madhavaram, and the others had been suffering financially since the lockdown started.
Counsel for the association M. Purushothaman said the 200 traders had been selected arbitrarily without following a fair procedure of allowing all traders to do business on rotation.
He insisted that they should be allowed into the market at the earliest.
