Issue QR ID Cards To 'Surveyed' Hawkers In 5 Weeks, Evict Illegal Vendors: Bombay High Court Directs BMC, Maharashtra Govt

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted five weeks time to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to issue 'Quick Response' (QR) Code generated Identity Cards (ID) to the 99,435 'surveyed' hawkers, so that any person beyond this list, especially Bangladeshi nationals, if found hawking, can be evicted. 

A division bench of Justice Ajay Gadkari and Justice Kamal Khata also directed the BMC to come up with some mechanism wherein people or the fellow hawkers can flag persons, especially Bangladeshi nationals, if found hawking in their local areas. 

"We grant five weeks time to the BMC to issue QR generated ID Cards to the 99,435 hawkers (who were surveyed in May 2014)... We also make it clear that issuance of the ID Cards, will not create any equity in their favour.... This is only being done to identify the illegal hawkers... We further direct the BMC to come up with some mechanism so that complaints of illegal hawkers can be lodged on WhatsApp, ensuring that the identity of the complainant is not made public," the bench said in the order. 

The judges further directed Government Pleader Anjali Helekar to come up with some provision in law so that any person, who creates a fake ID can be acted against as per law.

For context, the BMC had issued more than 1 lakh applications at the time when the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 was enacted and enforced. At that time, a total of 99,435 odd hawkers were 'surveyed' and were even 'protected' by the court. However, these 99,435 hawkers do not include the 'licensed' hawkers and that would be done by the Town Vending Committee (TVC) as and when constituted. 

In a judgment pronounced on March 23, this year, the High Court had directed the BMC and the Mumbai Police to conduct a 'thorough' verification of the identity of all the hawkers on the streets of the city and check if there are any 'Bangladeshis' or other 'immigrants' involved in hawking activities, and if found, the authorities were ordered to take 'appropriate' action against them. 

So, in order to identify whether the hawkers on the streets are among the 99,435 or not, the judges have suggested the civic body to issue the ID cards. Any hawker, beyond this list of 99,435 would be removed as they would be the 'illegal hawkers.'

During the hearing, BMC through senior counsel Anil Singh and advocate Chaitanya Chavan, sought two months time from the bench to complete the task of printing the ID cards and issuing the same so as to identify the illegal hawkers. 

However, the bench was not convinced as it responded, "Two months time is too much... We cannot permit the continuation of illegal activities for more two months... The only solution is identification of the hawkers as to who all are among the list of 99,435 and then anyone beyond that, will have to be removed... You must have the will and desire... you can consider roping in a private entity to complete this task."

Singh, however, pointed out that if private agency is brought in then the procedure of floating tenders etc will have to be followed, which would further delay the procedure.

At this time, the bench sought to know from Helekar as to what is the issue with the Police in taking action against the illegal hawkers. She however, pointed out that the police is patrolling the sites and suggested that once the ID cards are issued, it would be easier even for the police to take some stern action. 

Justice Gadkari, however, emphasised that the bench cannot be repeating one and the same thing for years altogether with no material compliance. The judge told the State that it can consider providing some funds to the BMC to print the ID cards, stating, "The State of Maharashtra has so much money that it is spending crores of funds on n number of schemes, giving funds to individuals for free but can't it not use some funds for the welfare of the common man?"

With this, the bench adjourned the hearing in the matter till June 10, by which time the BMC will have to issue all the ID Cards and identify persons beyond the list of 99,435 hawkers.

Case Title: Bombay Hawkers Association vs Chairperson, Town Vending Committee (Writ Petition 2750 of 2019)