Justice C S Rajan issued the notices when the petition by the Institute of Social Welfare, represented by Major M J C Nair, Kochi, came up before the court.

The petitioner sought a declaration that hartal and other calls for the closure of shops and establishments and blocking of vehicular traffic by any individual or other organised groups of people was bandh (closure) as defined in the court's judgement on bandhs.

The petitioner also wanted a declaration that by calling for a hartal on September 25, the CPI(M) had conducted a bandh, which had been declared as unconstitutional by the court.

Even though the court had made a distinction betweenhartal and bandh, political parties were taking undue advantage of the interpretation, the petitioner submitted.