New Delhi, June 27: The Supreme Court today sought the Bengal government’s views on a petition that wanted the state to keep away protestors clamouring for Gorkhaland from National Highway 31A, the lifeline to Sikkim.

A resident of the Himalayan state, O.P. Bhandari, had moved the apex court on Wednesday, urging it to intervene to get the Centre and the state government to keep the sole road link to Sikkim clear. Bhandari is an officer on special duty (legal) to Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling, although he filed the case in his personal capacity.

In recent times, pro-and anti-Gorkhaland agitation has often disrupted traffic on the Bengal section of NH31A so that essential supplies could not reach land-locked Sikkim.

The notice will have to be served by tomorrow on the state’s standing counsel in the Supreme Court.

A vacation bench directed that the matter be listed on July 3 for hearing, two days before the Gorkha janmukti Morcha’s indefinite bandh in the Darjeeling hills resumes. Currently, the Morcha, which is spearheading the protest for Gorkhaland, has declared a breather and NH31A is open.

“A part of the country cannot be blocked. This highway is the only link with Sikkim,” the bench said. It refused to pass any orders in the absence of the Bengal government’s view on the sensitivity of the situation.

“Law and order is a state subject. It is a very sensitive issue in some states… If Centre intervenes without state permission, it will lead to all kinds of troubles,” the bench told Bhandari’s counsel P.H. Parekh.

Parekh had argued that cutting of essential supplies meant denying the Sikkimese their fundamental rights. “The situation worsened to such a level that the government had to order rationing of essential commodities in the state,” the petition said.

The Union government and its transport and defence secretaries, the states of West Bengal and Sikkim and several organisations such as the Sikkim-Darjeeling Joint Action Forum, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Amra Bangali, Jan Jagran Manch and the Jan Chetna have been named as parties to the case.