Municipal officials are legally obligated to prevent unauthorized encroachments on public land, and failure to act constitutes contempt of court.

JUDGMENT

1. The petitioner in Contempt Petition No.909/2019 i.e. The Sardar Market Girdikot Vyapar Sanstha, Jodhpur, which is an Association of Shopkeepers having shops in the Sardar Market, Ghantaghar, Jodhpur, and is represented by Shri Anirudh Purohit, Advocate.

2. The petitioner in Contempt Petition No.7/2020 is the Rajasthan Thela Aur Footpathi Vyapari Union, Jodhpur, which is a union of street vendors claiming to have been illegally dislodged from the Sardar Market under directions of this Court, and is represented by Shri Shree Dhar Purohit, Advocate.

3. The petitioners in Writ Petition No.881/2020 are/were the members of the Town Vending Committee and are represented by Shri Shree Dhar Purohit, Advocate.

4. In Contempt Petition No.909/2019, the shopkeepers-association has alleged that despite pertinent directions of this Court, the street vendors are still thronging the Sardar Market creating obstacles in the thoroughfare of the public at large and thus they as well as the respondent officials who have failed to ensure compliance have committed contempt of the order dated 05.10.2015 passed by the Division Bench of this Court in D.B. Civil Writ Petition (PIL) No.2910/2008.

5. The Contempt Petition No.7/2020 has been filed by the Rajasthan Thela Aur Footpathi Vyapari Union, Jodhpur with an averment that the order dated 05.10.2015 has not been complied with in its letter and spirit and the members of the petitioner-association have been unauthorizedly removed from the Sardar Market and thus they are being deprived from earning their day to day livelihood.

6. During the course of oral arguments Shri Shree Dhar Purohit, learned counsel representing the petitioner-association, alleged that on the one hand, poor street vendors have been illegally ousted from the Sardar Market and taking undue advantage of their plight, the shopkeepers have made unauthorized encroachments on the areas of the market from which the vendors were ousted. In support of this contention, various photographs, apparently showing encroachments by the shop-keepers, were shown to us.

7. Writ Petition No.881/2020 has been filed by petitioners claiming to be elected members of the Town Vending Committee and that the State Government and Municipal Corporation are not acting faithfully in accordance with the provisions of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood & Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.

8. Mr. Rajesh Panwar, learned counsel representing the Municipal Corporation, Jodhpur, has placed on record a copy of the Final Street Vending Plan approved by the Municipal Corporation and points out that as many as 9 dedicated vending zones have been sanctioned by the duly constituted committee, after due consideration of the data collected during the course of the enqiry and that the State Government has granted administrative approval to this plan by its order dated 07.12.2020. He, thus, urges that the orders passed by this court have been complied with in their letter and spirit and hence, the contempt petitions deserve to be disposed of.

9. In order to ascertain genuineness of the allegations made by Mr. Shree Dhar Purohit, we put a pertinent query to Mr. Rajesh Panwar as to whether the shopkeepers have encroached upon the areas beyond their shops, to which, Mr. Panwar agreed that a few encroachments have been reported. It cannot be gainsaid that the problem of greedy shopkeepers indulging in rampant encroachments on footpaths and roads is like a termite infestation which is devouring the roads and public footpaths causing havoc to the infrastructure meant for public at large. The shopkeepers rampantly encroach upon the pavements for displaying their wares etc. Many instances are seen, wherein footsteps etc. are illegally erected by the shopkeepers in order to increase their area of business. In some areas, the roads have virtually been covered up and major part thereof has been encroached. Such kind of encroachments cannot be tolerated by any stretch of ima