HC strikes down confusing GR on hawker’s panel

In a major setback to the Maharashtra government, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday struck down the Government Resolution (GR) which posed the mind wracking query – ‘What came first, the chicken or the egg?’

The GR issued in January this year, purportedly laying down guidelines for the constitution of the Town Vending Committees, was intended to oversee the regulation of hawkers in every district.

The TVC GR was drafted under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act. The committees were to conduct surveys and identify street vendors/hawkers, issue certificates to the eligible ones.

This 30-member committee is headed by the Municipal Commissioner along with officials from the civic body, police, traffic police, officials from the health department and the Special Planning Authority. Apart from this, the Act also mandates inclusion of 40 per cent seats for the representatives of the hawker community.

In its GR, the hawker cannot get appointed in the TVC without being certified by the members. In fact the hawkers are integral to this committee. The TVC cannot conduct a survey or issue a certificate to hawkers without the inclusion of representatives of hawkers. The GR created a lot of confusion as none of the hawkers were identified by the TVC since over last three years.

In their 118-pages judgement, the division bench of Justice Bhushan Gavai and Justice Makarand Karnik said, “We may note that the GR has posed the question of who came first – the chicken or the egg. We may confess that the answer to this question is very difficult. However, with great respect to the legislature, we may say that the difficulty arises on account of the defective legislation.”

The judges, however, refused to accept the contentions of the petitioners, who highlighted the flaws in the GR, saying, “It will lead to nothing else but unworkability of the Act. We are of the considered view that both things cannot go hand in hand.”