Wrongful Eviction Of Street Vendors : Delhi HC Issues Notice To NDMC

Delhi High Court has issued notice to New Delhi Municipal Corporation, and SHO, Connaught Place Police Station, in a PIL challenging the public notice which led to the eviction of various street vendors from the Jama Masjid area.

Filed by the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), the petition seeks directions for quashing and setting aside public notice dated 12.09.2019 issued by NDMC which led to the eviction of street vendors from the Jama Masjid area. It also asks for street vendors to be allowed to squat at their respective site until the completion of procedure established by law.

Appearing for the Petitioners, Prashant Bhushan argued that the street vendors have been evicted without following the procedure laid down in section 3 of the Street Vendors Act of 2014 which envisages conducting a survey, registration of street vendors and issuance of Certificate of Vending (CoV) by the Town Vending Committee.

It is averred in the petition the the impugned public notice was issued in misinterpretation of the order passed by the Supreme Court on 02.09.2019 in MC Mehta v. Union of India, asking for all illegal encroachments to be removed from the pavements which are meant to be used by pedestrians.

It is submitted by the Petitioners that the NDMC wrongly evicted street vendors under such public notice as the aforesaid judgment of the Supreme Court doesn't even talk about the street vendors.

The petition goes on to mention that:

'any since eviction would change the status of a street vendor and would render the process of survey and identification process futile, the law prohibits any such eviction, removal, or relocation till this process gets completed for the first time. The street vendors have been removed/ harassed much before the statutory survey & identification. Thus, the beneficial legislation has been made redundant for the petitioners for unjustified reasons'.

Mr Bhushan had also pointed out before the Division Bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Hari Shankar that the street vendors enjoy protection by virtue of various orders passed by this court as well as the Supreme Court.