The Madras High Court on Monday directed the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) to explain by when certificates of vending would be issued to every mobile as well as stationary vendor in the city as mandated under the Section 4 of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act of 2014.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu directed Corporation counsel Karthika Ashok to get instructions on the issue. The direction was issued during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition, which insisted upon issuing a direction to the civic body to implement the 2014 Act effectively.
The counsel stated that the Corporation had already constituted town vending committees for all 15 zones after conducting elections. However, petitioner’s counsel P. Vijendran told the court that the certificates of vending were yet to be issued and that was the primary reason for problems faced by the vendors.
He said the town vending committees are supposed to issue the certificates to individual vendors. The certificates provide a statutory protection to the vendors, the petitioner’s counsel said.
