PYARE LAL Vs. NEW DELHI MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are seven appeals by special leave from a judgment and order of the Punjab High Court in a Letters Patent Appeal from a judgment and order of a single Judge dated April 7, 1966.

(2.) The facts in all these appeals bear a close resemblance and these cases were dealt with by a common judgment of the High Court. The facts in Appeal No. 486 of 1967 i. e. Pyare Lal's case, as laid in his petition, may be stated by way of specimen. By his petition dated October 12, 1965 Pyare Lal moved the Punjab High Court for the issue of a writ or direction restraining the New Delhi Municipal Committee from interfering with his right to carry on his trade at the site referred to in paragraph 1 of his petition or, at any rate, without allotting an alternative site to him. He was a seller of potato chops and squatted at a site beside the service lane at the back of a shop off Janpath, New Delhi. There were other squatters who occupied sites in the same service lane. Although in the petition it was claimed that the site was not part of a public street, this was not pressed before the High Court and we will proceed on the basis that as a matter of fact, he was squatting on a public street. He claimed to have been carrying on his trade at the same site from before 1950. He became a member of an association of squatters within the area of New Delhi Municipal Committee known as the New Delhi Rehri Owners Association formed for the purpose of pressing the demands of its members for grant of licenses and other facilities by the said Municipal Committee. Reference is made in the petition to assurances said to have been given by the President and Vice President of the Municipal Committee to the association in 1956 for giving the members of the association certain protection on conditions. It is said that the Vice-President of the Municipal Committee gave an assurance that if the squatters formed themselves into an co-operative society for preparation of edibles and built trolleys of specified designs and agreed to carry on their trade at places allotted, licenses would he issued to them. In response to this, a co-operative society was formed and the Health Officer of the Municipal Committee informed the association of the sites which had been approved by the Municipal Committee for the purpose. Before the licences could be issued, the office bearers of the Municipal Committee were changed and the new incumbents sought to go back upon the assurances given by their predecessors. After a long spell of contest and uncertainty the then President of the Municipal Committee made a press announcement in May 1963 that all squatters and stall-holders within the area of the New Delhi Municipal Committee who had been squatting or holding stalls since 1957 would be granted licences for the same. This was followed by a survey of all squatters and a list of them including the petitioner was prepared. On December 20, 1963, the New Delhi Municipal Committee passed a resolution for the grant of licences to these squatters. The relevant portion of the same is as follows :-

(3.) The petitioner was granted a licence to run his potato chops trade at a monthly fee of Rs. 25 and he was allotted a specific site mentioned earlier. Sometime in July 1964 the respondent-Committee sought to impose a condition to the effect that all hawkers /squatters should remove their stalls every day after sunset and re-establish them after sunrise. Various stall-holders challenged the aforesaid condition as unreasonable by way of writ petitions and civil suits. Thereupon the Committee stopped accepting licence fee from these sauatters/hawkers. Ultimately most of them withdrew their cases pending in court on assurance being given that they would not be disturbed in their trade. Thereafter, the New Delhi Municipal Committee called upon the squatters/ hawkers to submit declarations that they had paid the tehbazari fee upto 30th June, 1965 and that they had been allotted alternative accommodation by the respondent in lieu of the sites previously occupied. In return the Committee assured them that it would accept tehbazari fee from them and allow the occupation by them of the former sites held by them until allotment of alternative accommodation. It is stated that the petitioner submitted the desired declaration and the New Delhi Municipal Committee accepted the sum of Rs. 225 as licence fee up to 30th June, 1965. In the matter of allotment of alternative sites however, the respondent practiced discrimination and did not allot any site to the petitioner although it granted such facility to others. Further, the employees of the N.D.M.C. from time to time threatened the petitioner with removal of all his articles etc. with which he carried on his trade from the site occupied by him. The petitioner submitted that the N. D. M. C. was preventing him from carrying on his trade as a seller of potato chops unreasonably and in gross abuse of its power. It was submitted further that it was not open to the respondent to act arbitrarily and interfere with the petitioner's trade until the resolution granting the licence was annulled by a subsequent resolution. It was also submitted that the N. D. M. C. had no power under Section 173 of the Punjab Municipal Act to withdraw permission for encroachment on a public street unless reasonable prior notice was given. The grounds formulated in the petition were inter alia as follows :-