Judgment

CHANDRACHUD, CJI.:- These writ petitions are filed by and on behalf of a large number of hawkers who carry on the trade of hawking their wares in Greater Bombay, They sell almost everything under the sun, from hairpins to hot food and vegetables to video cassettes. They hawk their wares standing or squatting on public streets, which constitutes a serious impediment to the free movement of pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Standing, of course, is safer than squatting because, it ensures easy mobility at the sight of Municipal or police officers. Mobile hawkers decorated with a hundred ball pens, like war-medals, is quite a common sight in Bombay. Constraints of modern times have created ingenious methods of trading. Some of the streets in Bombay are so incredibly flooded with merchandise sold by hawkers that it is impossible for the pedestrians to walk on those streets. The Bombay Municipal Corporation has been making herculean efforts to clear the streets of these and other obstructions but, those efforts have met with intense opposition from several quarters, not unexpectedly, even from those who wield considerable political influence. In the ultimate analysis, it is the ballot-box that matters. This tug-of-war or the game of hide-and-seek between Corporation and the hawkers led recently to a serious incident in which an officer of the Corporation engaged in the task of demolishing unauthorised constructions put up on public streets, was shot at. He survived but such is the magnitude of the problem.

2. Petitioner 1 is the Bombay Hawkers Union, a Trade Union which has a large number of hawkers on its membership roll. It has been negotiating with the Municipal authorities for the creation of a hawkers zone and for granting adequate number of licences to hawkers to enable them to carry on their trade and business. There are about 1,50,000 hawkers in the city of Bombay, 1/6th of them being women. Broadly, there are three types of hawkers - those who have four-wheeled carts, those who squat on the streets and those who have stalls. The largest amongst these are the squatting hawkers who number about 1,20,000. Petitioner 2 is the President of the Bombay Hawkers Union and is also a Corporator. The other three petitioners carry on the business of hawking.

3. Respondent 1 is the Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay, respondent 2 is the State of Maharashtra, respondent 3 is the Municipal Commissioner, while respondent, 4 is the Commissioner of Police.

4. The contention of the petitioners is that they have a fundamental right. to carry on their trade, business or calling and that the respondents are unlawfully interfering with that right. The petitioners complain that respondents 1 to 3 arbitrarily refuse to grant or renew licences for hawking, which renders the hawkers liable to be removed along with their goods, from places where they do their business. By these writ petitions, the petitioners ask for a declaration that the provisions of Ss. 313, 313-A, 314(3) and 497 of the Bombay, Municipal Corporation Act, 1888 are void since, they confer upon the respondents an arbitrary and unguided power to refuse to grant or renew licences for hawking and to remove the goods without affording to the hawkers an opportunity to be heard.

5. These writ petitions were heard from time to time when, several suggestions were made and possibilities explored for evolving a satisfactory solution to the problems faced by both the sides. It was eventually decided and, a consensus emerged between the parties that the Municipal Commissioner should frame a scheme for regulating the grant of licences to hawkers and for creating hawkers zones wherever necessary. In pursuance of this understanding several meetings were held between the officers of the Bombay Municipal Corporation and, the members of the Hawkers Committee of which the Mayor of Bombay was the Chairman. By his letter dated May 6, 1983 the Municipal Commissioner proposed a scheme, which is ann