The purpose of a footpath is to ensure smooth passage of traffic and to make available a safe path for pedestrians and this purpose is defeated if a civic body permits stall owners to erect stalls right in the middle of a footpath, the Bombay High Court has said.

A division bench of Justices S B Shukre and M W Chandwani on February 1 directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to reconsider a decision taken by it last year permitting 11 stall owners to erect stalls on a footpath situated outside a hospital at Worli in central Mumbai.