Zero action against hawkers: Bombay High Court pulls up BMC

If you move out of Churchgate and go towards the suburbs like Andheri Malad Kandivli Borivli or for that matter name any station there is absolutely no road free of hawkers Let alone driving you cannot even walk on the roads observed Justice Kamal Khata of Bombay High Court while hearing a Suo Motu petition addressing the issue of hawkers menace in Mumbai The division bench also came down heavily on the state for failing to maintain law and order after BMC cleared the streets of hawkers The division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice A S Gadkari and Justice Kamal Khata heard the Sum Motu petition for 25 hours straight postlunchbreaklsquoHawkers are not licensedrsquoCounsel representing the Bombay BAR Association which is an intervenor in the Suo Motu petition informed the court ldquoNone of the hawkers in Mumbai are licenced In order to issue licenses the Town Vending Committee TVC needs to be formulated which then issues licences The licences previously issued to the hawkers have also expired At present no hawker is licened in MumbairdquoBhaji Market Gully a 520 am on December 1 right Illegal hawkers flood the stretch around 9 pm the same day PicsPrasun ChoudhariJustice Gadkari while hearing the matter rapped the hawker unions who had tagged along their application to be heard along with the Suo Motu Petition Justice Gadkri said ldquoStop doing business if you dont have a license The common man walking on the street does not have fundamental rights If you are having fundamental rights under Article 21 the common man is also having fundamental rights under the same article You cannot just tell us that your rights are being violated and ignore the rights of a common manrdquo Justice Kamal Khata also came down heavily on the state for not enforcing law and orderPolice have failedldquoNo action is taken at all in Colaba from your end Zero action is taken It is a clearcut eye wash Why do you not call for additional force even after previous court orders directing you to bring in additional force if required Your beat marshals are doing nothingrdquo Adding to this Justice Gadkari also questioned the state asking ldquoWhat is the use of beat marshals if hawkers are sitting right in front of themrdquoJustice Gadkari pointing out some petitions filed by shop owners whose shop entrances have been blocked by hawkers stated ldquoThere are multiple petitions being filed in this court by shop owners These shop owners have a licence to do their businesses but these hawkers block the entrance of these shopsrdquoThe BAR Association counsel also pointed out ldquoEven if some hawkers have a licence they cannot just set up their stalls anywhere No hawker can set up a stall in lsquoNO HAWKING ZONErsquo irrespective of being a licensed or unlicensed onerdquo BMC senior counsel said ldquoWe BMC have forwarded to the police a list of hawkers with license and their destination of licenserdquoThe Bench also set aside all the petitions tagged along with the Suo Motu PIL which were with concern with the Town Vending Committee TVC formation to be heard separately citing the matter of election results of TVC is pending with the Supreme Court The bench heard all the petitions separately one by one on Thursday and determined which ones are in connection with the TVC formation untagging them from the Suo Motu petition for hearing separately one by one in January