chennai the tamil nadu government will not open new tasmac shops within the prohibited distance along national and state highways including municipal areas till the supreme court clears its liquor ban order an undertaking to this effect was given by tamil nadu advocategeneral vijay narayan to madras high court on mondaywe have moved an application seeking clarification on the issue in the supreme court the state government is taking steps to bring up the petition for early hearing till then we would maintain status quo and not open new liquor shops in the prohibited areas and even in municipal areas advocategeneral vijay narayan saidrecording his submissions the first bench of chief justice indira banerjee and justice m sundar adjourned the matter to november 20 for further hearingthe issue pertains to a pil moved by advocate k balu president of advocates forum for social justice he assailed an order passed by commissioner prohibition and central excise department dated september 1 this year permitting licenced liquor establishments that fall under the prohibited distance from highways within the municipal limits to functionthe petitioner alleged that the order of the supreme court had been wrongly understood by the departmenthe submitted that the authorities had failed to note that the apex court order dated december 15 2016 prohibited grant of licence for sale of liquor along and in the proximity of national and state highways including those falling within the limits of municipal corporations cities towns or local authoritiesthe supreme court in its order did not prevent the authorities from reclassifying intersectoral roads within the city from state highways to major district roads even chandigarh administration has reclassified the roads and then allowed functioning of liquor shops thereby not violating the court orders but the tamil nadu government has failed to follow the procedure he said