No one can claim rights to public places: HC

The court reacted after the city traffic police submitted a list of solutions through a government pleader

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said no person could claim it was their right to park vehicles or carry out work like hawking, ferrying people through cabs, etc at public places. The HC clearly said such activities could not be allowed in public places, as it causes congestion.

A division bench of Justices Naresh Patil and Girish Kulkarni also directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to work with Mumbai Traffic Police to implement the solutions put forth by that department for to reduce traffic congestion in South Mumbai.

This comes after the traffic police submitted a list of solutions through government pleader Purnima Kantharia. The solutions include the provision of odd even parking, demarcation of areas for loading and unloading of goods through handcarts, marking dedicated lanes for BEST buses, etc. After submitting the list, Kantharia informed the judges of the ‘resistance’ of the local residents to the solutions. She said, “People have

told our officers that it is their right and they cannot be asked to remove their vehicles and businesses from the place all of a sudden.”

Hearing this, Justice Kulkarni said, “Parking on public roads has to be regulated. People cannot claim it as their right to park on public roads or carry their work like loading unloading etc. If this is the case, let them do it on their private premises, we cannot allow such things to happen on public places.” The judges

accordingly directed the BMC to instruct its ward officers to work in consultation with the police and ensure hawkers are removed from the place. “Let the ward officers act in consultation with the police else the menace would not come to an end. We are of the view that the ward officers must be made accountable for implementing the solutions as put forth by the traffic police, only then we would see some good results.” The judges have accordingly

granted four weeks' time to the BMC and the traffic police to implement the solutions and file a status report on the same.