New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought a response of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on a petition filed by the National Hawkers Federation (NHF) to scrap limited sections of the Delhi Master Plan 2021 and to replace it with the section as per the Street Vendors (Regulation of Livelihood & Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014.
The bench comprising Justices D.N. Patel and Jyoti Singh on Thursday issued notice to the Development body of the national capital in this regard and posted the matter for January 11, 2022.
Advocate Kawalpreet Kaur made the submissions on behalf of the hawkers’ body, sought direction to quash and set aside the limited sections mentioned in the Master plan of 2021 are in direct contravention to the Section 3 and 21 of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.
The petition contended that the Delhi Master Plan of 2021 doesn’t take into account the existing provisions in the Act introduced by Parliament in regard to street vendors and hawking.
The street vendors contribute to the economy in a huge way besides being a form of self-employment, which brings down the numbers of unemployed in the country and more than half the urban population is dependent on them, the plea said.
It further said that the master plan for Delhi was approved in 2007 that came to be implemented at present; however, even after certain amendments were subsequently carried out in the Master Plan, the Master Plan 2021 at present contravenes the aforesaid provisions of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.
In 2014, Amendments were made in the Master Plan of 2021 over the period. But in 2021 The Master Plan of 2021 makes no mention of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, it said.
The plea urged the government or concerned local agency to coordinate the policy.
It also stated that, if the Respondent authority is not directed to take appropriate steps in order to implement the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014, all the urban street vendors in the State shall continue to suffer irreparably which would result in an absolute miscarriage of justice.
The street vendors belong to the unorganised sector and unlike the social security schemes available for the rural unorganised labourers, there is no scheme adopted by either the Central or the State Government for securing the livelihood of poor people living in the cities and towns, it said.
