Disposed

Mayur Girish Gor v. State of Gujarat

Gujarat HC22 Oct 2021WPPIL/68/2021

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

Petitioners approached the Court under Article 226 for various reliefs including a registration portal for street vendors, financial aid, and loan moratoriums due to pandemic restrictions. The Court examined the State's affidavit regarding existing schemes and town vending committees and disposed of the petition, observing that the petitioners' issues would be addressed on a case-to-case basis.

What did the court decide?

Disposed. State to address grievances on a case-to-case basis. No specific reliefs granted for portal creation or financial aid.

Mayur Girish Gor Vs State of Gujarat — Pension and Retirement Benefits | Gujarat HC (2021)

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C/WPPIL/68/2021 ORDER DATED: 22/10/2021

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD

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R/WRIT PETITION (PIL) NO. 68 of 2021

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MAYUR GIRISH GOR

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Versus STATE OF GUJARAT

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Appearance:

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MR BHUSHAN B OZA(1072) for the Applicant(s) No. 1,2,3,4,5 for the Opponent(s) No. 2

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MS MANISHA LUVKUMAR, GOVERNMENT PLEADER WITH MS AISHWARYA GUPTA, ASSISTANT GOVERNMENT PLEADER/PP(99) for the Opponent(s) No. 1

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CORAM: HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. JUSTICE ARAVIND KUMAR

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and

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HONOURABLE MRS. JUSTICE MAUNA M. BHATT

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Date : 22/10/2021

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ORAL ORDER

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(PER : HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. JUSTICE ARAVIND KUMAR)

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The petitioners who have filed this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India claim to be the espousing the public cause contending inter alia that petitioners are protecting the interest of the street vendors across the State of Gujarat who are facing extreme difficulty and hardship on account of restrictions imposed by the Government of Gujarat to control the spread of COVID-19. This petition has been presented seeking for following reliefs:

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“12(A) That Your Lordships will be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or a writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, directing the

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C/WPPIL/68/2021 ORDER DATED: 22/10/2021

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respondents, their agents and servants to create a portal and register all the street vendors and also create a data base thereof to enable the respondents to earmark the street vendors and give them benefits of government welfare schemes.

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(B) Pending admission, hearing and final disposal of this petition, direct the respondents, their agents and servants:-

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(i) To immediately declare relief package for street vendors across State of Gujarat by paying them vendors across State of Gujarat by paying them monthly allowance of at least Rs.5000/- per month,

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(ii) To direct waiver of school/college fees of their children of two academic years;

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(iii) To issue MA Card to all the street vendors who have been deprived of it and in the alternative to direct to give them all the benefits available under MA Card;

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(iv) To permit the street vendors to carry on their business in open government plots;

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(v) To give moratorium period of one year to the street vendors for payment of installments of the loan taken under PM SWANidhi scheme, home loans, personal loans taken from various banks and financial institutions in consultation with Govt. of India and various banks including RBI.

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(vi) Pending applications under PM SwaNidhi be cleared

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C/WPPIL/68/2021 ORDER DATED: 22/10/2021

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and fresh applications be allowed for those street vendors who have not been able to apply under the scheme so far.”

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We have heard Mr. Bushan B. Oza, learned counsel appearing for

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the petitioners and Ms. Manisha Luvkumar, learned Government Pleader assisted by Ms. Aishwarya Gupta, learned Assistant Government Pleader for the State.

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Sum and substance of the petitioners’ case is that as per the Gujarat Urban Livelihood Mission (‘GULM’ for short), creation of a website for registration of all street vendors and creation of data base is required to enable the respondents to earmark street vendors and to give them the benefit of the welfare schemes propounded or floated by the government and on account of the pandemic having spread across the globe, the government was forced to impose restrictions like lockdown, curfew, etc. to control the spread of the pandemic, commencing from 24.03.2020 and in the entire State of Gujarat, there was complete lockdown for a period of six months or partial lockdown with limited concession which affected the livelihood of the street vendors, as a result of which it had impact on the economic situation of their families who were dependent or income earned by pursuing their avocation as street vendors.

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It is further contended by the petitioners that while implementing

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this restriction, local authorities and police have excluded street vendors

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C/WPPIL/68/2021 ORDER DATED: 22/10/2021

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of benefit of Government Scheme. There are various other street vendors who carried on the business of food, stationery, clothes, shoes, cutlery, etc. and all these businesses came to a standstill. In other words, it is contended that livelihood of the petitioners came to a standstill. It is not in dispute that government has tried to assuage the hardships caused to the persons like street vendors by extending certain reliefs like providing ration which though contended to be inadequate is an issue which would not be in the realm of this Court to examine the policy decision of the State. It is the further grievance of the petitioners that they are left with no income to meet the expenses of rent of their residence, expenses towards medical and utility bills, expenses of school fees to their children, etc. Hence, they have sought for the portal being created so as to register all these street vendors which would result in creation of data base and thereby it would enable the respondent authorities to scientifically identify the street vendors for extending them benefits of the schemes framed by the government for welfare of different classes of societies including street vendors.

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In the affidavit filed by way of reply by the respondents, the details regarding creation of a portal for the purpose of registration of Unorganised Worker Identity Number (U-WIN) has been narrated. It is also deposed in the said affidavit that on registration of such portal, the

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C/WPPIL/68/2021 ORDER DATED: 22/10/2021

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U-WIN will be issued and an identity card for ensuring targeted delivery of benefit of welfare schemes of the Central Government as well as State Welfare Schemes, like Maa Vatsalya Yojana, Accidental Group Insurance Scheme, Rashtriya Swasthay Suraksha Yojana, Medical Assistance and other healthcare schemes. It is stated that data base is created for U-WIN based on their occupation and said portal is said to have been integrated with Common Service Centres (CSCs) for issuance of U-WIN cards, since the said Common Service Centres act as an access point for delivery of several government-run schemes across the country, including essential public utility services, social welfare schemes, healthcare, financial, education and agriculture services which contribute digitally with their Pan India presence.

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It is the further grievance of the petitioners that the Street vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Rules, 2016 is not being implemented in true spirit with which the said enactment has been brought in. Reading of Section 22 of the said Act would clearly indicate that it provides that the constitution of a Town Vendor Committee which consists of members of civil society, such as representatives of the local authority, non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, etc. and it provides for representation of street vendors which shall not be less than 40% to be elected from

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C/WPPIL/68/2021 ORDER DATED: 22/10/2021

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amongst the street vendors. In exercise of powers vested with the said State under Section 36 of the Act constitution of various committees can be undertaken by the State.

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The affidavit filed by the State would also disclose that at present in the State of Gujarat, there are 163 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), out of which regular town vending committees are functional in 56 ULBs whereas Provisional Town vending Committees are in place for the remaining 107 ULBs. The districts of Kutch, Bhuj and Mandvi municipalities have regular town vending committees as against the ULBs in Rapar, Anjar, Bhachau and Gandhidham having provisional town vending committees.

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Section 3 of the Act mandates that a survey shall be carried out in the respective jurisdiction of the Town Vending Committee at least once every 5 years and the statistics for survey conducted in the year 2017 for the district of Kutch is as under:

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Sr. No.	Name of the ULB	Surveyed Street vendors Data
1	Anjar	818
2	Bhachau	335
3	Bhuj	1174
4	Gandhidham	2811
5	Mandvi K	762
6	Rapar	281

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C/WPPIL/68/2021 ORDER DATED: 22/10/2021

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In fact, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of

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India, by its communication dated 28.01.2020, has enclosed a draft of the certificate for being issued to the street vendors surveyed in the State of Gujarat. Under the said communication, Ministry has informed that scheme known and called as PM SvaNidhi Scheme has been launched for providing affordable working capital loan to street vendors to help them resume their livelihood which had been affected during pandemic by granting them loan upto Rs.10,000/- and this scheme would be available to all the street vendors engaged in vending in urban areas with a cut-off date as 24.03.2020. The affidavit would also disclose that eligible vendors will be identified as per the criteria stipulated therein viz. (i) street vendors in possession of certificate of vending / identity card issued by Urban Local Bodies (ULBs); (ii) the vendors, who have been identified in the survey but have not been issued certificate of vending / identity card; (iii) street vendors left out of the ULB led identification survey or who have started vending after completion of the survey and have been issued Letter of Recommendation (LoR) to that effect by the ULB / Town vending Committee (TVC); and (iv) the vendors of surrounding development / peri-urban / rural areas vending in the geographical limits of the ULBs and have been issued Letter of Recommendation (LoR) to that effect by the ULB / TVC. It also

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C/WPPIL/68/2021 ORDER DATED: 22/10/2021

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provides for an interest subsidy @ 7% and the said scheme aims to incentivised digital transactions by vendors through cashback facility. The onboarded vendors would be incentivised with a monthly cashback in the range of Rs.50 – Rs.100 as per the criteria prescribed thereunder. In the State of Gujarat, 2,18,878 vendors have applied for the loan facility of which 1,09,863 have been extended facility till the date of filing of the affidavit dated 22.06.2021 by the Assistant Labour Commissioner.

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The State having felt to link PM SVANidhi beneficiaries and their families to the existing welfare schemes of the government has designed safety nets to protect the poor from the socio economic risks and insecurities of life and livelihoods. The said PM SVANidhi has been launched under Section 31 of the Act the benefit of which extends to household members in 125 cities in the first phase upto the duration of existence of the said scheme viz., upto March 2022. For implementation of the said scheme in the State of Gujarat, the municipalities of Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Rajkot, Junagadh and Jamnagar Municipal Corporations and Anand and Nadiad Municipalities have been selected.

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To stave off the allegations made in the petition which is to the effect that for the financial year 2020-2021 that government had received Rs.13.45 crores as financial aid under the Gujarat Urban Livelihood Mission had spent and only a sum of Rs.1.25 crores, contended by

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C/WPPIL/68/2021 ORDER DATED: 22/10/2021

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learned Government Pleader that said grant was towards administrative cost of the mission and there is no policy framed for disbursement of any amount to any beneficiary under the Mission. The note filed by the learned Government Pleader states that Government of Gujarat has established ‘Gujarat Urban Livelihood Mission’ as a nodal agency, for the implementation of the ‘Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Urban Livelihoods Mission’ keeping in mind six components of Mission viz. (i) Scheme of Shelters for Urban Homeless; (ii) Social Mobilisation and Institutional Development; (iii) Employment through Skills Training & Placement; (iv) Self-Employment Programme; (v) Capacity Building and Training; and (vi) Support to Urban Street Vendors. It also discloses that main object of the Mission is for the upliftment of urban poor and the said Gujarat Urban Livelihood Mission is acting as a facilitator between beneficiaries and other schemes of the State. It further states that said Mission seeks to address the concerns of urban street vendors by facilitating access to suitable spaces for vending, institutional credit, improved skills and linkages to social security schemes.

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In the aforesaid background it cannot be gainsaid by the petitioners that incidental hiccups for implementation of the Scheme even if any would itself be a ground for this Court to issue a writ. The mode, manner and method in which policy envisaged by the State is to be implemented,

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C/WPPIL/68/2021 ORDER DATED: 22/10/2021

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certain amount of leverage has to be necessarily extended to the State and there cannot be any strait-jacket formula prescribed by the constitutional courts directing the State to implement the Scheme in a particular manner and only when there is infraction administrative act, judicial review would be permissible and not otherwise.

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After having perused the averments made in the writ petition and reply affidavit filed by the State as noticed hereinabove, this Court is of the considered view that sufficient steps have been taken by the State for protecting the rights of the street vendors and the prayers sought for in the petition have been sufficiently attended to. However, it also requires to be observed by this Court that in the event of any street vendor being deprived of the benefit of any scheme, as and when it is brought to the notice of the authorities, we see no reason to disbelieve that why such grievance would not be addressed to by the State or in other words, it will have to be necessarily examined by he State and its authorities on case-tocase basis and appropriate action in that regard be taken.

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With these observations, this writ petition stands disposed of.

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(ARAVIND KUMAR,CJ)

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(MAUNA M. BHATT,J)

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Bharat

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Mayur Girish Gor v. State of Gujarat

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

Mayur Girish Gor v. State of Gujarat

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

What the court decided

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