Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Tuesday sent a two-member panel on an immediate surprise survey of hawkers from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) area to Hutatma Chowk, near the court premises, and onwards to Colaba to assess the compliance of its earlier order. It also directed the police to set out how it intends to ensure that illegal vendors, once removed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), do not return. The HC was informed that while hawkers from CSMT appeared with valid documents, on Colaba Causeway, there was “rampant hawking” in close proximity on one side of the road, with most having expired licences, but the stalls had numbers painted on.A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata was hearing a 2023 suo motu PIL on Mumbai hawkers, including the obstruction of pavements, and a bunch of other petitions. Mid-hearing, the HC requested advocate Jamshed Mistry, amicus curiae (friend of court) it appointed in the suo motu PIL, and advocate Chaitanya Chavan for BMC to go “in the next five minutes” to survey by foot the hawkers from CSMT to Hutatma Chowk (Flora Fountain) and then to Colaba, as court commissioners. The duo set off in a court car followed by a police escort in uniform and plainclothes and, on reaching the site, walked around to inspect.Mistry submitted a short report to the HC on return. He and Chavan said they saw satisfactory compliance in the CSMT-to-court area, with hawkers having licences and payment receipts. The issue at hand before the HC is to ensure enforcement of the 2014 Street Vendors’ Act, which requires committees and a new scheme.Mistry submitted that Churchgate-to-HC hawkers were seen selling clothes, electronic items, and other items and even had licence copies ready. One quickly, maybe a tad too quickly, whipped out a licence for the year ‘2031′. The court commissioners said in Colaba, the hawkers kept saying they had been surveyed.A PIL was also filed last year by Goregaon Merchants Association, and their advocate Bahraiz Irani raised a serious concern of rampant illegal hawking on public footpaths, with vendors also physically assaulting licensed shopkeepers and others. Harsh Patel, a corporator, submitted a letter to BMC on Tuesday seeking immediate “stringent action” to remove illegal hawkers.BMC counsel Chavan informed the HC that on April 16-17, civic officials removed hawkers from the affected Goregaon area and, citing earlier orders of the Supreme Court as well as the HC, duty was cast on state and police to ensure they do not return. “We have carried out our duty of removal,” the BMC advocate submitted. The HC then directed the new government pleader Anjali Helekar to take comprehensive instructions from the Mumbai police commissioner and inform the court on compliance as well as set out how police will take action.Earlier, on March 23, the HC had directed the BMC to permit 99,435 hawkers across Mumbai, already found to be eligible, to hawk and to list others who are eligible from the balance 29,000. “No other hawkers” apart from these can be permitted, ruled Justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata, while also directing the BMC and Mumbai Police to verify identities of all persons, including those alleged to be Bangladeshis or other foreign nationals, who are hawking or work as helpers at stalls and to initiate legal steps to repatriate those found to be illegal immigrants.
