Bombay High Court on Tuesday voiced strong dissatisfaction over the handling of illegal hawkers in Mumbai. Citing mid-day’s report, ‘This Borivli hawker market has killed several BEST services’, the court addressed a suo motu PIL on the issue. An advocate representing the bar council presented the report in court, prompting the judges to discuss the gravity of the situation.
 
Several licenced hawkers and hawker unions have intervened in the PIL, raising concerns about their rights being infringed. An advocate for a group of licenced hawkers stated, “Whenever the court passes an order, the civic body sweeps away all hawkers, licenced or not.”

In response, the division bench of Justice A S Gadkari and Justice Kamal Khata clarified, “We are not concerned with licenced hawkers—they have the legal right to vend goods. Our focus is on illegal hawkers. How is it determined whether a hawker is licenced?”