The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 protects lawful vending activities, but cannot be invoked to shield unauthorised permanent structures or encroachments on public streets, the Calcutta High Court has held.

Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury made the observation while dismissing a writ petition filed by Tangra Dhapa Hawkers Samiti and other hawkers' associations challenging a Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) eviction notice issued on August 3, 2026.

The petitioners claimed that they represented hawkers carrying on vending and hawking activities along Dhapa Road and adjoining localities within the KMC area. They contended that vending was the sole source of livelihood of their members and was protected by the 2014 Act and Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution.

The hawkers' associations argued that the impugned notice was issued despite the absence of a proper notification identifying the concerned area as a no-vending zone.

Reliance was also placed on the minutes of the June 27 meeting of the Kolkata Town Vending Committee, where it was recorded that although a list of no-vending zones was available with the KMC's market and licence departments, there was no proper notification of the same.

Additional Advocate General Billwadal Bhattacharyya, appearing for the KMC, submitted that the municipal action was not directed at lawful vending as such, but at unauthorised structures occupying a public footpath.

The KMC placed before the Court a report of its Executive Engineer, Borough VII, stating that an apartment owners' association had complained about permanent and temporary structures obstructing movement on an existing KMC footpath.

The municipal authorities claimed that a subsequent drive found shops and other structures which had been unauthorisedly erected in violation of Section 371 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, 1980.

The KMC had accordingly issued notices under Sections 371 and 516 of the Act, granting the encroachers 15 days to relocate.

The Court declined to interfere with the municipal action.

Justice Basu Chowdhury noted that although the petitioners described themselves as street vendors, there was nothing before the Court demonstrating that they were authorised street vendors or hawkers.

The Court observed that the material placed by the KMC showed that the municipal authorities were seeking to remove encroachments in the form of structures having "some sort of permanency".

Against this backdrop, the Court categorically held:  "Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, does not protect illegal and unauthorized construction."

The Court further clarified that the petitioners could not take shelter under the 2014 Act to protect unauthorised construction or encroachment on a public street.

"What is protected under the said Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, is the right to carry on vending activities that too in a vending zone, and the right against eviction in certain cases," the Court said.

The Court, however, recorded the KMC's clarification that additional time would be provided to vendors whose carts were not presently movable.

The Additional Advocate General submitted that vendors would be given an opportunity to make such carts movable in accordance with the provisions of the 2014 Act.

The Court directed that if appropriate steps were taken within the additional period to make the carts movable, the August 3 notice would not be implemented insofar as such street vendors were concerned.

Finding no reason to interfere with the municipal action, the Court disposed of the writ petition.

The petition had been mentioned before the Court in the morning citing extreme urgency and was subsequently listed in the daily supplementary list upon notice to the respondents.

Case: Tangra Dhapa Hawkers Samiti & ors. Versus KMC & Ors

Case No: WPA 22671 of 2026

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