Roadside vendors hoodwink corporation, courts to stay in buisness

City shops encroaching pavements have found a novel idea to remain in business. They brandish expired writ petition orders of the Madras high court, which are only temporary stay, as proof that the shop is not eating into public space. TOI looked into a few writ petitions (see graphics) filed by these shops from 2010 to 2022 on several roads, including Pantheon Lane, Whannels Road, Gandhi Irwin Road, Ethiraj Salai, Montieth Road, Rukmani Salai and Kannadasan Road.In all these cases, the court had either given Greater Chennai Corporation time between one week to four weeks to issue notice and take action, and not remove the shops till then, or had asked the vendors to consult the corporation’s town vending committee.
The court did not give an unconditional stay for the encroachers to retain their shops. However, in all these cases, the corporation did not remove the encroachments and these shops have thrived for more than a decade. Madras high court advocate N Rukmangadhan, who has filed a PIL on removing encroaching shops, said due to GCC’s inaction, the number of bunk-shop encroachers on pavements has spiked. “As GCC did not remove the bunks as per writ petition orders, seven more shops came up on Pantheon Lane, five on Whannels Road, four on Gandhi Irwin Road, three on Ethiraj Salai, three on Montieth road, two on Tamil Salai and one on Rukmani Salai. I wrote to the commissioner on February 28 to remove these encroachments but no action was taken,” said Rukmangadhan. He said the writ petition route has become a modus operandi of illegal vendors.
“Once a conditional stay is given, the corporation considers them as a permanent stay and does not appear in those cases again nor does it follow them up. They forget the cases. Encroachments thrive for years,” he said. Advocates said the encroachers are filing cases under the garb of being physically-disabled, as earlier courts had given stay for such people on humanitarian and livelihood grounds. “But in reality, if we check the shops, those shop-owners are not disabled. This has become a common modus operandi in several cases,” said advocate N Vishwanathan, who has flagged several bunk shop encroachments in K K Nagar.
Vishwanathan said to ensure compliance of the corporation in implementing its orders, the court must have a separate wing to review the cases in GCC. “They can monitor zone wise if the WPs are followed,” he said. Senior legal officer for Greater Chennai Corporation Jacob Rajan Babu said the cases by vendors are filed in batches of hundred and the corporation is fighting them. “Many file cases under the garb of being physically disabled. We are forming a town vending committee to curb the menace,” he said.