Order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court regarding plan for street vendors in Shimla, 05/07/2023
Order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court in the matter of Court on its motion Vs State of Himachal Pradesh & Others dated 05/07/2023. The matter related to street vendors in Shimla.
Municipal Commissioner and the Municipal Committee, Shimla have not yet prepared a plan for street vending under Section 21 (1) of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 in consultation with the planning authority and not even constituted a ‘Town Vending Committee’ in the manner indicated in Section 22 of the Act and the Rules made thereunder, the court said.
They have taken recourse to action for eviction of the street vendors operating in Lower Bazaar area on January 21, 2023, the court said. "Without properly constituting a Town Vending Committee under section 22 of the Act, we fail to understand how a notification under section 18 (1) of the act could have been issued declaring any area to be a 'no vending zone', the bench comprising Chief Justice M S Ramachandra Rao and Justice Ajay Mohan Goel observed.
The High Court, July 5, 2023 directed the Municipal Corporation, Shimla to constitute a 'Town Vending Committee' in Shimla in accordance with section 22 of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 and the state government under section 20 of the act would immediately constitute a ‘Dispute Redressal Mechanism’.