JUDGMENT - A. AGARWAL, J.:---Lack of legal authority to introduce "pay and Park "on the public streets of Bombay is the burden of the song sung by the petitioners. The petitioners are the residents in the vicinity of Khodadad Circle, Dadar T.T., Bombay, for the past over 30 years. It is their case in short that they have been parking their vehicles in the Khodadad Circle, for a number of years. The said area, being essentially a residential area, had not much of parking space during night time except the said Khodadad Circle. The respondents, the Municipal Corporation and the Municipal Commissioner, had in the past sought to introduce scheme of Pay and Park for Cars. However, the same was abandoned after representations against the said scheme were made and a Writ Petition challenging the same was filed. However, the in the beginning of the year 1989, the Respondents sought to reintroduce the said scheme. Under this scheme, the Khodadad Circle as also various other portions of the public streets were earmarked for Pay and Park scheme. Small huts were put up in the areas cordoned for the Pay and Park. Boards containing the Rules and Regulations for the said Pay and Park scheme were displayed. Under the Rules the working time for the Pay and Park was fixed between 8.00 a.m. and 10.00 p.m. Fees fixed for the parking were as follows:

1. Upto 1 hour Rs. 1.00

2. From 1 hour to 2 hours Rs. 2.00

3. From 2 hours to 4 hours Rs. 5.00

4. From 4 hours to 8 hours Rs. 10.00

5. More than 8 hours Rs. 15.00

No parking was allowed after 10.00 p.m. and vehicles parked after 12.00 midnight were threatened to be towed away to the nearest Municipal dumping yard which could be released only after paying towing charges of Rs. 600/-. Vehicles were required to be parked in the parking areas at the owner's risk and the Municipal Corporation was not responsible for theft or damage, etc., of the vehicles when parked or being towed away to the Municipal dumping yard.

2. One Shri M.R. Pai had made a representation dated the 25th of January, 1988 to the Municipal Corporation against the introduction of this scheme and the Additional Municipal Commissioner addressed his communication dated the 4th of April, 1988 justifying the scheme. The said communication is annexed at Exhibit 'C' to the Petition. It may be relevant to reproduce the material portion of the said communication, which is as follows:---

"The Municipal Corporation has contemplated reintroduction of the Pay and Park Scheme with a view to control indiscriminate parking, reduce traffic congestion and misuse of Municipal roads.

You will appreciate the fact that in the absence of any systematic provision of parking space, congestion due to parked vehicles adversely affects the mobility on arterial roads in the city. In order to restrict vehicular traffic, some measure of pricing needs to be introduced and operationally one of the most significant and successful measures is to charge a fee for parking in congested areas.

It may be mentioned that the High Level Committee set up by the Planning Commission in April 1978 to formulate a national transport policy for our country had reviewed the issue of regulation and control of Urban Traffic and have in their report recommended charging of fees for parking in congested city Centres.

Considering the role and importance of the Central Business District of Mumbai, where at present 86% of the passenger movement is carried by Public Transport, the introduction of "Pay and Park" Scheme as one of the tools of auto traffic restraint assumes very high priority.

It is not correct to presume that the problems related to traffic are being resolved only by the Traffic Police Department. The implementation of Improvement Schemes is essentially one of the responsibilities of the Municipal Corporation. The Traffic Department of the Municipal Corporation have a team of well experienced, highly qualified traffic engineers who period

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