‘Point out law prohibiting vendors from selling meat without licence’

The Delhi High Court has asked the North Delhi Municipal Corporation to bring before it the law that prohibits a street vendor from selling meat without a licence.

“Where is the law that prohibits a street vendor from selling meat without a licence? Which law entitles you [North Delhi Municipal Corporation] to prohibit it? Saying you have a policy is neither here nor there,” Justice Vibhu Bakhru said.

The counsel for the civic body thereafter sought time to place before the court the law, if any, which requires street vendors to get a license for selling meat. The court granted the North corporation time till Monday to indicate the said law.

The court was hearing a plea by an association of street vendors seeking directions to the civic body not to displace them from their squatting sites at Mahendra Park here, till they are granted a vending certificate under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.

The association, in its petition, contended that according to provisions of the Act they cannot be evicted unless a survey is conducted and a scheme is framed.

The civic body had said that the vendors were selling meat and meat products in unhygienic conditions and that this would entitle it to take the necessary action of removing them.