GAINDA RAM Vs. M C D

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Hawking on the streets of Delhi, whose municipal limits have expanded over the years, has been the subject matter of several proceedings in this Court. Initially in the early sixties, this problem surfaced when this Court, hearing an appeal from a decision dated 4th August, 1966 of the Punjab High Court, Circuit Bench at Delhi, dealt with this question in some detail in the case of Pyare Lal v. New Delhi Municipal Committee and Anr., AIR 1968 SC 133. In Pyare Lal (supra), sale of cooked food on public streets which was creating the problems of unhygienic conditions came up before this Court in the context of a resolution of the New Delhi Municipal Committee stopping such sale. A three-Judge Bench of this Court held that no person carrying on the aforesaid business of selling cooked food has any fundamental right to carry on street vending particularly in a manner which creates unsanitary and unhygienic conditions in the neighbourhood.

(2.) However, the controversy did not rest there, nor did the problem of hawking come to an end in view of Pyare Lals judgment.

(3.) Several cases were filed thereafter in different Courts and ultimately the leading decision was rendered in the case of Sodan Singh and Ors. v. New Delhi Municipal Committee and Ors., (1989) 4 SCC 155 by a Constitution Bench of this Court.