Supreme court judgments on rights of hawkers

Supreme Court: In a case dealing with the rights of street hawkers, the Division Bench comprising of Hon'ble G.S. Singhvi and V. Gopala Gowda, JJ., laying down directions for strengthening the socio-economic condition of street hawkers, said that street hawkers have received harsh treatment from the State apparatus including police officers who have constantly victimized them for extra income and treated them with cruelty. The Court referred to it’s earlier decision in case of Gainda Ram vs. Municipal Corporation of Delhi, (2010) 10 SCC 715, where the Court, referring to the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, 2009 ('the 2009 Policy'), the Master Plan of Delhi, 2012, the Model Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2009 prepared by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, directed that appropriate Government should enact Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2012 and implement the 2009 Policy so that the livelihood of million street hawkers can get protection against constant harassment and victimization.

The 2009 Policy has legal framework for registration of such vendors so as to give legal status to be regulated through the Town Vending Committee (TVC); the impugned policy also enumerates the function of TVC including periodic survey/census of street hawkers and other monitoring regulations. The Court lamented over the fact that inspite of the decision in Gainda Ram case passed by the Court, the condition of these hawkers has not improved owing to lenient attitude of the administration at various levels and the legislative lacuna regarding this issue. 

The Court, owing to aforementioned reasons, directed Chief Secretaries of the State Governments and Administrators of the Union Territories to issue necessary directions for constitution of TVC having representation from various organizations and street hawkers, which is to be chosen by adopting a fair and transparent mechanism. The Court, further, said that TVC shall function, strictly, in accordance with the 2009 Policy and registration of all street hawkers should be done in accordance with the said Policy within four months of the receipt of the direction by the competent authority. Adding to this, the Court also said that these directions shall remain operative until an appropriate legislation is enacted by Parliament and in cases where any municipal law relating to street hawkers is in conflict with 2009 Policy then the impugned Policy will have an over-riding effect over such law. [Maharashtra Ekta Hawkers Union v. Municipal Corporation, Greater Mumbai, Civil Appeal Nos.4156-4157 of 2002, decided on September 9, 2013]

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