The central legal point established in the judgment is the interpretation of Section 3(3) of the Street Vendors Act and the importance of constituting the Town Vending Committee to regulate street vending.

1. All these petitions are preferred by persons claiming to be street vendors within the meaning of Section 2(1) of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 and seeking to restrain the respective municipalities from dispossessing them from the respective sites from which they claim to be street vending till their cases or claims for issuance of a certificate of vending (within the meaning of Section 4 of the said Act) and to which each of them claims to be entitled, are considered by the Town Vending Committee to be constituted under the said Act. In some of the petitions, additionally, the relief of directing the municipality to issue a local tehbazari site and to register the petitioner in the Town Vending Committee in terms of the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in Maharashtra Ekta Hawkers Union vs. Municipal Corporation Greater Mumbai, 2013 (11) SCALE 329 and/or a mandamus to the municipality to issue a certificate of vending to the petitioner/s is sought.

2. The counsel for the respondent New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has informed that a large number of such petitions by street vendors have been coming up before this Court on a daily basis and identical orders are being passed therein. Attention is drawn to the order dated 30th October, 2014 of this Court in W.P. (C) No. 7337 of 2014 titled Nagendra Yadav vs. New Delhi Municipal Council and in other connected petitions where, a) after taking notice of the aforesaid dicta of the Supreme Court and of the Street Vendors Act supra; and, b) after expressing an opinion that Section 3(3) of the said Act clearly states that no street vendor shall be evicted or relocated till the survey to be carried out by the Committee, has been completed and certificate of vending has been issued to all street vendors, a direction was issued for constitution of the Town Vending Committee within the meaning of Section 2(m) and Section 22 of the said Act within a period of eight weeks therefrom and the petitioners in those cases were permitted to file their representations with the Town Vending Committee and which representations were directed to be decided expeditiously, preferably within six months therefrom and the petitions were disposed of.

3. I highlight, that in the aforesaid order, besides expressing an opinion as aforesaid on Section 3(3) of the Act, no restraint order, as sought in these petitions and as sought in those petitions also, was issued. I further highlight that thus, no relief as sought by the street vendors petitioners, i.e. of restraining the municipality from dispossessing them from the sites from which they claimed to be street vending was given. Perhaps it was felt that granting any such relief would denude the municipalities of all powers to regulate street vending and make the pavements inaccessible to pedestrians and the street vendors will literally hold the rest of the city to ransom.

4. The counsel for the respondent NDMC states that the said order has been followed in all the other petitions which subsequently came before this Court.

5. The counsel for the respondent NDMC further informs that the Town Vending Committee is to comprise of thirty members and of which twelve are to be elected from the association of the street vendors and the remaining are either ex-officio/officials or to be nominated. He further states that as far as he is aware, though has no written instructions in this regard, all the other members of the Town Vending Committee are in place and the process of forming of an association of street vendors and holding their elections for electing the representatives on the Town Vending Committee is at an advance stage.

6. This Court, in the order dated 30th October, 2014 supra, had directed the Town Vending Committee to be constituted within a period of eight weeks therefrom. The said period has long since expired. The non-constitution of the Town Vending Committee by the concerned a