The Supreme Court has asked the Maharashtra Government to respond on a set of appeals filed by the BJP and Shiv Sena, which have challenged a Bombay High Court decision that had penalised them for forcing a shutdown in Mumbai in July 2003 following the Ghatkopar blasts. The two parties, which had challenged the decision in 2005, had been asked to pay Rs 20 lakh each for enforcing the bandh.

However, though the apex court agreed to allow a final hearing of the pleas of both political parties, it also directed the petitioners to pay the fine amount first.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam also issued notice to former Cabinet secretary B G Deshmukh on whose petition the HC imposed the penalty on the BJP and Shiv Sena. Notices seeking their responses were also issued to former Mumbai police chief Julio Ribeiro and advertising guru Alyque Padamsee.

In their appeal, the parties contended that they had called for the shutdown in the metropolis to give expression to widespread public resentment against a series of terror bombings in the metropolis and its suburbs in a span of seven to eight months from December 2002. They claimed they called the bandh on July 30, 2003, after the terror bombing of a state transport bus in Ghatkopar in which four persons were killed and 48 injured.

Following the bandh, Deshmukh and others had moved the High Court seeking damages worth Rs 50 crore on behalf of Mumbai residents affected by the shutdown.