With the doors in Delhi shut, the fair organisers and the state government representatives have little option but to appeal before the high court that had asked the state to shift the book fair from Maidan.

Advocate general Balai Ray will appeal to the high court, for the second time, to allow the book fair on the Maidan this year. A similar order had been obtained from the high court last year with an assurance that a permanent fairground was being constructed along the EM Bypass.

State government officials reported in a meeting held at the AG’s chamber that a writ petition filed on behalf of the Indian Craft Village Trust had come in the way of the proposed fairground.

They promised the AG and the army officials present at the meeting that the fair organisers wouldn’t do anything to upset the Maidan’s ecological balance.