High court stays scheme to regulate street vendors in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Monday stayed the enforcement of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Scheme, 2015.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Monday stayed the enforcement of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Scheme, 2015.

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Seven months ago, the Delhi government had notified the amended scheme to regulate street vending in Delhi.

A bench of chief justice G Rohini and justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said that the January 7 scheme was notified even before the constitution of the Town Vending Committees, which are mandated under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.

The 2014 Street Vendors Act was enacted to protect the rights of urban street vendors and to regulate street vending activities.

It came into force with effect from May 1, 2014. It says that the state government shall frame a scheme for street vendors for implementing the Act.

The Act provides for constitution of a Town Vending Committee (TVC) in each local authority which will conduct a survey of all existing street vendors within the area under its jurisdiction to ensure that all existing street vendors identified in the survey are accommodated in the vending zones.

Senior counsel Kirti Uppal, appearing for Hawkers Adhikar Suraksha Samiti, contended that the Delhi government’s scheme was liable to be set aside as it has been made without consulting the TVCs as mandated under the 2014 Act.

Advocate Indira Unninayar, who represented National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), told HT, “The latest scheme made by the Delhi government has put too many impossible restrictions on the vendors. They had started removing many vendors from different parts of the capital including Connaught Place, Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Market etc. even before the setting up of the TVCs,” she said.

“TVCs will not get the correct number of vendors operating in their area, as most of the vendors will be cleared by the time the committee executes its survey,” Unninayar said.

The court was told that TVCs have been constituted so far only for NDMC and Cantonment Area in May and the other committees are yet to be constituted.

The court, which was hearing various petitions relating to implementation of the provisions of Street Vendors Act, 2014 and the Rules and the Scheme made by the Delhi government, has put up the matter for further hearing on September 8.