The Delhi High Court Friday pulled up the Delhi government for not preparing the statutory street vending plan saying enough politics and “mockery” has been done and questioned the formation of the Town Vending Committee (TVC) for the NDMC area. The court said the administration of the city cannot be held to ransom at the hands of street vendors and maintained that it has ordered for the removal of illegal vendors and hawkers from the Connaught Place area as the law has to be implemented as it is in the no-hawking zone.
“Please get down to some real work. Enough of politics. Where is the (street vending) plan? You need to first come out with the plan. Unfortunately, we are saying with a lot of pain that you people are not acting in the manner the Street Vendors Act was framed. People are taking advantage out of it. You are not able to make headway. If you would have done it with bonafide, things would have been different today,” a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh said. We will not mince our words. “Don’t play politics. We mean business. We are giving you one opportunity to mend your ways now,” the bench told the counsel for the Delhi government.
The bench also raised questioned over the way the TVC for the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area has been formed which includes representatives of small markets but excludes the bigger stakeholders like shopkeepers of Connaught Place, Sarojini Nagar, Khan Market, Janpath, Gole Market, and Bengali Market. You have not worked seriously while forming this TVC. You are forming TVC for the NDMC area and you are not including representatives from Connaught Place and Sarojini Nagar. We think the whole process is a mess. The way it is being worked out is completely wrong. The way TVC is formed, we are sorry to say but it appears it is a complete mockery, it said, adding, you cannot hold the administration of the city to ransom at their hands.
The court’s observations came while hearing a plea by New Delhi Traders Association, which represents shop owners and operators in the Connaught Place (CP) area, seeking to strike down the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Scheme, 2019. The high court issued notice and sought response of the Delhi government and NDMC on the petition and directed the Delhi government to specifically mention in the affidavit the justification for the constitution of the current TVC for the NDMC area.
It also asked the government to mention the background of the NGO members, including the field in which they are working and the causes that they are taking up. The association, represented through senior advocate Sanjeev Ralli and lawyer Mohit Mudgal, has also sought to set aside the September 17, 2019 notification issued by the Delhi government for constituting a TVC for the entire NDMC area.
Ralli argued there is no statutory plan for street vending as mandated under the Street Vendors Act and this needs to be prepared by NDMC and approved and notified by the Delhi government. He further argued that about 16 organised markets are falling in the NDMC area where lakhs of visitors come every day and the representation of members of these markets are required in TVC for taking a balanced and fair decision regarding areas to be earmarked as vending, restricted vending and no vending zones, but two market associations have been included in TVC as against 12 streets vendors and 1 hawkers association who have been included as members of the committee.
Senior advocate Rahul Mehra and standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi, representing the Delhi government, said due to the COVID-19 pandemic people’s back has been broken, and now its Diwali time, and vendors were supposed to make some money and they are being removed and that heaven will not fall if any action is taken after the festival. It is festival period, I am requesting for only one week. These people are from lower strata and if they are spared for a week, they would be able to earn some money during the festival and help their families. They will only bless us. Kindly modify the order (of removal of illegal hawkers and street vendors), Mehra submitted.
The court, which made clear that it was not against hawkers, said Why the things be not streamlined, be it Diwali or not Diwali. Why there should be illegal hawkers, street vendors, tehbazaris at all and added that law cannot be ignored because its Diwali time. In ethos, we find street vendors. They are part of our culture, we are not against them. We still buy fruits and other stuff from street vendors. They are an essential part of the community and nobody is saying that they be thrown out of society. They have fundamental rights but no fundamental right is absolute. We need to balance it with the rights of others, the bench said.
It said the implementation of the scheme is not correct and the current TVC is heavily dominated by vendors so it will not be able to work properly. When Mehra said that the court was earlier misled by Ralli and NDMC counsel Harsha Peechara, the bench said, Don’t worry, we do not get coloured so easily so have faith in us and also made it clear that it was wrong to make accusations against the two advocates concerned.
Today we are bound to implement the law on no hawking zone. Till the time it is a no hawking zone, irrespective of the law, you have to implement it. If you have the power to amend the law, do it, but till the time law is there, you have to implement it, it said.
Read all the Latest News , Breaking News and IPL 2022 Live Updates here.
Comments
0 comment