Hawking Menace: Bombay High Court Slams BMC And Maharashtra Govt For Blame Games, Failure To Establish Town Vending Committees

A division bench of Justices Mahesh Sonak and Kamal Khata noted that the Street Vendors Act was introduced in 2014 for controlling the issue of illegal Hawking. The Act provided for establishing a Town Vending Committee (TVC) which would be certifying or granting licences to the hawkers, basically, identifying authorised and unauthorised ones.

On Thursday, the judges noted that despite the Act mandating constitution of such TVCs within six months, it's been a decade that the same has not been implemented. Instead, the judges noted, the State and the BMC indulged into a "blame-game" with both authorities pointing fingers at each other for non-implementation of the Act.

Irked over the submissions made by Government Pleader Poornima Kantharia and senior counsel Anil Singh, who represented the BMC, the judges said the authorities were only making a joke of the entire issue.

"The legislature requires you (State and BMC) to do something within six months but you did nothing from last 10 years... If they (State) want to they can come up with ordinance overnight... They can bring in committees overnight... But they are choosing to blame the BMC. The problem is too old... It's become a joke now that the authorities aren't coordinating and are instead blaming each other," a visibly angry Justice Sonak remarked.

The bench made it clear to the advocates appearing for all the parties that it will not give up on the issue and would continue to ensure that the law is implemented.

"We are not here to sort out these small things like bureaucratic delays, lack of coordination. We feel that you think that we are too much interfering in the works of the executive but when the executive fails in its duty we have to do something. We will never give up on this issue... We will not raise our hands... We will go step by step," Justice Sonak made it clear.

Highlighting the issue and its effects on the citizens, Justice Khata weighed in, observing, "I am fed up hearing the same thing from the last 10 years. Every single human being in this city is suffering be it citizens or hawkers... Everyone is suffering what is your answer to that? Citizen, hawker, legal hawker, pedestrian, everyone is suffering... There are only judgments, laws but no action...Are you expecting people to suffer and not complain?"

The strong-worded observations were made while hearing a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) highlighting the menace of hawkers in Mumbai and other cities across Maharashtra. It also points out that despite the law (Street Vendors Act, 2014) being in place and multiple orders passed by various benches of the HC and also of the Supreme Court, the authorities have failed to implement the said Act of 2014.

During the hearing, the bench said it was high time now and someone from the State must be made accountable to the issue. It therefore, ordered the Principal Secretary, Urban Development Department to personally look into the issue and ensure the TVC is elected by August end and the mandatory Scheme (for streamlining hawking) is prepared by the end of September. If the officer, fails to do so, the judges said the same would be viewed strictly.

"There is an increase tendency to only cite difficulties or put blame... It is the duty of the executive to overcome such difficulties and strictly comply with the mandate of the legislature. Under no circumstances the formulation of the Scheme should be delayed. If the Principal Secretary faces difficulties from any quarter it is his responsibility to move this court by stating clearly on affidavit, names of persons or authorities responsible for creating such difficulties. If he doesn't do this then it will be presumed that despite there being no impediments the officer has failed to comply with the statutory mandate and court orders directing the executive to implement the legislative mandate," the judges recorded in the order.

The bench therefore adjourned the matter till September 2.