Tribal woman can become Prez, grassroots worker may rise to top posts in India: HC

Reaffirming the transformative aspirations of the Constitution, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asserted that India is a nation where a tribal woman from a remote village can rise to become the President, and a worker from the grassroots may ascend to the highest echelons of the administration.

“We are a country now having homogenous class of Indians. A tribal lady of a remote village can now be the President of India, and a worker from the grass-roots level may reach up to the highest echelons of the administration,” the Bench of Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Meenakshi I Mehta asserted.

The assertion came as the Bench directed the UT Municipal Corporation to ensure that street vendors and their families, who deposited fees with it for vending certificates, were provided with social protection. The court asked the civic body to utilize the fee amounts for the welfare of vendors alone, and to formulate Rules for providing them with insurance, including medical facilities.

The Bench added it could not ignore the reality that an elite class, still carrying a colonial mindset, looked down upon countrymen engaged in small businesses, treating them as mafias or encroachers. The judiciary was required to rise above such prejudices. “Gone are the days when we had British Judges sitting in courts, looking at justice to be delivered for people who rule,” the court asserted.

At the same time, the court raised concerns over the misuse of the Street Vendors Act, 2014. Observing that the benefits intended for genuine vendors were being exploited by unscrupulous elements, the Bench cautioned that the law’s objectives were being subverted.

“This court also notices that the Street Vending Act and the benefits which it meant to give to the genuine street vendors is also being misused by a certain set of persons, and even the shopkeepers themselves setup hawkers’ stall in front of their shops selling their own items. At the same time, a certain group of people use wrongful means to get their name entered in the survey registers and illegally get sites registered for hawkers purposely. Such misuse of law deserves to be dealt with by an iron hand and a will to execute the provisions of law with integrity and dutifully,” it said.

To curb such misuse, the court directed the Municipal Corporation to establish a dedicated cell of inspectors and officers to regulate and prevent abuse of the Act, while ensuring that genuine vendors were not harmed.

Rejecting the writ petition filed by certain unions alleging that vendors, hawkers, and squatters were encroachers and members of a mafia operating on commercial hubs, roads, parks, and public spaces, the Court imposed costs of Rs 50,000 each on both unions.

The Bench further observed that India’s administrative and judicial structures have witnessed inspiring stories of individuals rising from humble beginnings. There are scores of examples of such employees who are presently working on various posts and are ably helping in the administration as well as Judiciary in the country. Even in the Judiciary, we have had examples of persons who worked as munshis/clerks with lawyers and rose up to the level of Chief Justices.”