HC pulls up SDMC over inaction against hawking

The court took exception to an affidavit filed by the SDMC, which said that certain vendors were “occupying much larger space” than mandated and were regularly flouting restrictions with impunity.

The Delhi high court on Thursday pulled up officials of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) for their failure to prevent unauthorised hawking in Nehru Place and instead “complaining” to the court about vendors not complying with orders.

Delhi high court (HT Archive)

A bench of justices Manmohan and Navin Chawla said it was “astonished” and “surprised” that an SDMC officer was telling the court about the violation of its orders to keep the Nehru Place area free of hawkers, instead of taking action himself.

The court, which was hearing a batch of petitions concerning vending in the area, took exception to an affidavit filed by the SDMC, which said that certain vendors were “occupying much larger space” than mandated and were regularly flouting restrictions with impunity. The affidavit was filed in a related contempt case.

“We are astonished. Are these people powerless? Don’t they have any power? Why are they complaining to us? We should be complaining to them.. What is he (officer) doing? He is the person at the ground level…What sort of affidavit is this? Is this some joke or what? They are supposed to ensure compliance. Does he want to work or does he want us to retire him.. He is saying he can’t do anything? What is he getting salary for? He doesn’t want to act.. He is at the ground level,” the bench observed.

During the hearing, the counsels for SDMC claimed that the erring vendors were not complying with the restrictions concerning the time of vending as well, it further noted. The court remarked that while the SDMC official was “telling us the truth”, he had to take action at the ground level.