In a significant verdict that would help the authorities tackle illegal hawkers’ menace in the metropolis, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday ruled that no hawking would be permitted within 100 metres from places of worship, holy shrines, educational institutions and hospitals and within 150 metres from municipal or other markets or a railway station and also on footbridges and over-bridges.
In the ruling that came as a major setback for Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam who was one of the petitioners in a bunch of PIls, a HC bench of Justices M S Karnik and B R Gawai rejected the petitioners’ contention that after coming into force of the said Act, there are no non-hawking zones and that the hawkers are entitled to carry on their vending activities on all the roads.
“It is held and declared that insofar as area falling under Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is concerned till the vending and non-vending zones are duly notified in accordance with the said Act, the hawking activities would be permitted only on roads which have been approved as hawking zones in 2009 Ekta Judgment of the Apex Court,” the Judges said.
Alluding to 2004 Supreme Court judgement in the Ekta case and the subsequent reiteration of the same by the apex court in 2009, the HC ruled: “no hawking would be permitted within 100 metres from any place of worship, holy shrine, educational institutions and hospitals or within 150 metres from any municipal or other markets or from any railway station.
It is also directed that no hawking would be permitted on footbridges and over-bridges.
However, the HC bench made a minor exception in the case of hawkers vending outside the places of worship, when it noted: “It is clarified that outside places of worship hawkers can be permitted to sell only such items as are required by the devotees for offering to the deity or for placing in the place of worship e.g.flowers, sandalwood, candles, agarbattis, coconuts etc”.
Alluding to the September 29, 2017 stampede in which 23 commuters were killed and 38 others injured, the HC bench noted: “The presence of the large number of hawkers on the foot over bridge is said to be one of the major contributing factor in the said mishap. ...We are faced with a situation to balance the rights of the hawkers to do vending business to earn their livelihood on one hand and rights of the citizens to use the footpaths and roads without causing any obstruction and also ensure their security on the other hand”.
“We ask a question to ourselves as to what would be the effect if the contention of the Petitioners that they are free to do hawking anywhere in the City, is to be accepted. There will be no regulations to regulate the business of hawking. The Authorities will be powerless to take action against the hawkers, even if the business of hawking causes threat to free flow of traffic and also causes threat to the security of citizens,” the Judges noted.
Rejecting the petitioners’ plea seeking leeway for hawkers in the absence of no non-hawking zones, the HC bench averred: “We are therefore of the considered view that the contention that now there are no non-hawking zones and the hawkers are free to do their vending business anywhere in the city, is without merit and therefore deserves to be rejected”.
Apart from Nirupam, prominent among other petitioners in the bunch of PIl were Azad Hawkers’ Union, Navi Mumbai Hawkers & Workers’ Union, Tapridarak & Feriwala Kalyankari Sanstha, Kalamboli and Thane Zilla (Maharashtra) Hawkers’ Union.
Interestingly enough, the high court’s verdict came in the backdrop of a raging controversy between the Raj Thackeray-led MNS which has launched a campaign to remove all hawkers occupying the railway premises, including FOBs, and the Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam who has taken up cudgels for the hawkers in the suburbs of Mumbai.
So much so that MNS’ Malad unit chief Sushant Malwade and three of his party workers were assaulted by a group of hawkers on Saturday last and Nirupam was booked on the following day by the police for “inciting” the hawkers to indulge in an attack on Malwade with iron rods.
The slugfest between the MNS and Congress took an ugly turn on Wednesday when Raj Thackeray supporters hurled potatoes at Congress workers who had taken out a morcha at Dadar in north-central Mumbai in support of hawkers. There was a minor between the Congress and MNS workers. The police detained several MNS and Congress workers in connection with the incident.