While hearing a plea of the street vendors who were barred from selling non-vegetarian food by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), Gujarat High Court yesterday, on December 9, pulled up the civic body and demanded an explanation.
“You don’t like non-veg food; it is your lookout. How can you decide what people should eat outside? How can you stop people from eating what they want?” asked Justice Biren Vaishnav.
The petitioners had filed the plea under the Street Vendors [Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending] Act, 2014, challenging the unjust action by the AMC for seizing their carts and other equipment.
They claimed before the court that the move by the civic body was discriminatory and violated their rights under Article 21 of the Constitution.
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Advocate Ronith Joy, who had filed the vendor’s plea, was quoted, “There is no embargo to sell eggs or other non-vegetarian food items either in the Constitution or any other law enacted by Parliament. Under what authority or power are the Respondents preventing the Petitioners and persons alike from vending is something that is not available in public domain.”
In its defence, AMC reportedly stated that selling non-vegetarian food on the streets creates a health hazard as it is unhygienic and also harmful to the environment.
Justice Vaishnav retorted, “Tomorrow you will decide what I should eat outside my house? Tomorrow they will tell me that I should not consume sugarcane juice because it might cause diabetes or that coffee is bad for my health.”
On November 15, the Ahmedabad civic body had banned the street vendors from selling non-vegetarian food.
It is reported that AMC Revenue Committee chairman Jainik Vakil had written to Municipal Commissioner and the Standing Committee on November 13 to ban the sale of non-vegetarian food on roads ‘in order to immediately clear encroachment by illegally proliferating non-vegetarian carts on city’s public roads, religious and educational places and other places’.
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