Chandigarh, Jan. 24 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday asked The Hind Samachar Limited, publisher of Punjab Kesari newspaper, to approach the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in respect of notices slapped by the Punjab government on the group's hotel in Jalandhar and a printing facility in Ludhiana. The high court bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry said the appropriate remedy before the petitioners was to approach the NGT. "This court hastens to add before concluding that no order on merits has been passed and any assertion on merits is only meant for deciding the preliminary objections raised by the respondents (Punjab government)," the court said while disposing of the petition filed last week. On January 20, the Supreme Court had disposed of a petition from the group, directing that its printing press in Ludhiana would continue to function uninterruptedly. However, in respect of other commercial establishments, including the hotel, the status quo, as existed on the date of hearing, would be maintained for one week from passing of the order by the Punjab and Haryana high court on the petitions filed by the group. Initially, the group had filed a petition on January 16, challenging notices to its hotel in Jalandhar and subsequently a printing press unit in Ludhiana over alleged violation of environmental pollution norms. The group had alleged that the government action was aimed at intimidating the press. It was argued that they were denied reasonable opportunity of being heard, as no show-cause notice was given and the objections to the same were not considered before taking impugned action of closure of hotel, and disconnection of water and electricity connections in respect of hotel. Somewhat similar allegations were levelled in respect of action initiated on the Ludhiana printing press unit. The government had argued that the hotel, Project Park Plaza, which has 72 rooms, one banquet hall, two restaurants and a swimming pool, had not obtained authorisation under the provisions of the Hazardous Waste Management Rules, 2016. The hotel has installed a sewage treatment plant (STP) of 70 kilolitres daily (KLD) capacity based on biological treatment, which was not in operation during visit, and untreated waste water was being bypassed into MC sewer, the government had argued. When the case was taken up on January 19, the government had argued that the petition was not maintainable as the petitioner should have first availed opportunity of approaching NGT first before invoking jurisdiction of high court. On that date, the high court had heard the petitions on the issue of maintainability and reserved its judgment. As the group failed to get interim relief from the high court, it had approached the apex court on January 20, resulting in the restraint order....