Sorry, can’t allow hawkers, shops on skywalks: High court

Hawkers cannot be allowed on the skywalks, the Bombay high court ruled on Thursday.

The division bench of justice DY Chandrachud and justice JP Devadhar refused to admit an application by the Mumbai Metropolitan Road Development Authority (MMRDA), seeking permission to construct shops on some of the city skywalks.

The bench refused to interfere with the earlier high court order of January 2009, which had spelt out that should be no shops or hawkers on the skywalks.

The MMRDA moved the application, requesting that it be allowed to construct shops on skywalk at Kanjurmarg to rehabilitate project affected persons (PAP).

Senior counsel Rafiq Dada and advocate Kiran Baglia, both representing the MMRDA, argued that as the skywalk would be more than seven metres wide, “there will be sufficient space for pedestrians too.”

Opposing the application, advocates Jamshed Mistry and Dipesh Siroya cited the high court order of January 30, 2009, which said that there should be no hawkers or shops or any other kind of obstructions on skywalks. Mistry and Siroya represented the Federation of Retail Traders’ Welfare Association (FRTWA), on whose petition the court had stayed construction of shops on skywalks.

The FRTWA petition had mentioned only three skywalks — Grant Road, Dadar and Mulund. So, the MMRDA this time sought clarification it could build shops on the Kanjurmarg skywalk.