The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Tamil Nadu government on a plea seeking stay on an order issued by it to ban fishing through purse seine nets.
A bench of Justice A S Bopanna and Justice Vikram Nath issued notice to the Tamil Nadu government, after hearing advocate C R Jaya Sukin on behalf oo an applicant, Gnanasekar and others.
The Madras High Court had earlier dismissed a PIL filed by Fisherman Association against the state government's order banning fishing via purse seine nets in toto.
The applicant contended before the court that around 15 lakh fishermen were affected by the order. Besides the people's livelihood, the order had also adversely affected the blue economy, the applicant said.
For a period between April 15 to June 15, the ban imposed on mechanised fishing helped the breeding of fish. However, the ban on use of purse seine nets was done in an arbitrary manner and went against the policy of the Union government.