The property vested in the Corporation under the Kerala Municipal Corporations Act is for a public purpose and can only be used as a street. The duty of the Collector and the Corporation to maintain the unobstructed use of public streets by the public.

1. In all these Original Petitions what is questioned is the action initiated by the District Collector with the concurrence of the Executive Engineer, National Highway, Ernakulam, Executive Engineer, P.W.D. (B&R), Ernakulam and the Commissioner of Police to demolish the bunks by the road side in the Cochin Corporation where petty traders are carrying on their trades. Some bunks have already been demolished. Some of the bunks are constructed by the Cochin Corporation at its expense and granted to the respective licensees. Some with no such licences are functioning for the last few years. The Revenue and the Corporation passively allowed the bunk owners to carry on the trade in the footpaths and in the road side. In one case, the petitioners are the duly appointed agents of the Kerala Live Stock Develop ment and Milk Marketing Board Ltd., who have put up Milma Kiosk or Stalls by the road side in sites allotted by the Corporation, which also received licence fees in respect of the same.

2. The petitioners would contend that the demolition of the bunks is violative of Art.14,19 and 21 of the Constitution. The decision to remove the bunks and the action initiated thereon is alleged to be contrary to the rule of law and all canons of natural justice. According to them, they have invested large sums of money for conducting their business in the bunks. To take action of demolition upsetting the planned lives of the petitioners without any kind of notice, is arbitrary and illegal. They also contend that as regards bunks constructed by the Corporation that the Corporation itself has taken a decision as per Ext P 12 that prior notice is required for any kind of removal of inconvenience is a very vital pointer to the fact that the matter is very serious affecting the livelihood of the licensees. As regards Milma Stalls, bunks are situated in the sites with the permission from the Corporation of Cochin and the G.C D.A. on payment of rent. They contend that they cannot be summarily evicted without notice

3. In the submission made by the learned Addl. Advocate General on behalf of the District Collector and on behalf of the others, who are respondents in the various O.Ps. it was pointed out that the decision to remove the bunks was taken at a Conference of the District Officials and of the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor and some other members of the Corporation. It was being felt that these bunks, as they are situated in public roads, were creating great nuisance to the public. They were a hindrance to the travelling public in regard to the use of the roads.

4. In considering the questions raised before me in these cases, one has to be well aware of the law relating to public streets or roads situated within the Corporation limits. There is an excellent discussion on this aspect of the law in the well-known treatise on the Law of Municipal Corporations in British India by P Duraiswami Aiyangar, though unfortunately, this book has no later edition to its revised second edition of 1924. The learned author states there (at page 485):

"In India, however, all the Acts creating Municipal Corporations define the - word "street" and some of them also contain definitions of public street' and 'private street'. Regard has therefore to be bad to the statutory definitions contained in the enactments, whenever any necessity arises for construing them. All streets are highways, although all highways are not streets. The franchise of every highway belongs to the sovereign as a trustee for the public; and all the public streets are for the public use, and the use. is nonetheless for the public at large, as distinguished from the municipality. The Legislature of the State has full and paramount authority over all public ways; and by virtue of this authority, it alone can authorise acts to be done in and upon them, or legalise obstructions therein, which would otherwise be nuisances. It may determine when, where, and how streets and other public highways s