HC upholds demolition of illegal stalls outside Kandivali railway station

Coming down heavily on the appellants, a division bench of justice Milind N Jadhav said, “These hawkers never pay taxes, inconvenience the public, litter public spaces, they occupy land belonging to others forcibly and then approach courts to seek due process of law to be followed before evicting them.”

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed eight appeals filed by stall owners outside Kandivali railway station, holding that the structures were illegal and unauthorised.

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed eight appeals filed by stall owners outside Kandivali railway station, holding that the structures were illegal and unauthorised.

Coming down heavily on the appellants, a division bench of justice Milind N Jadhav said, “Time has come to send a strong message to such illegal hawkers and land grabbers that the rule of law prevails in this country. These hawkers never pay taxes, inconvenience the public, litter public spaces, they occupy land belonging to others forcibly and then approach courts to seek due process of law to be followed before evicting them.”

The dispute dates back to 1998, when the owners of 27 stalls–labelled “illegal” by civic authorities–formed a society called the Saibaba Mitra Mandal and challenged a demolition notice issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Between 1998 and 2004, the matter went through several rounds of litigation. However, in 1999, after the Bombay High Court dismissed one of the suits, the structures were demolished.

Despite this, 12 stalls were rebuilt in the same area and the litigation continued. After a full trial and dismissal of their claims by both the high court and the Supreme Court in 2024, eight of the 27 stall owners again approached the Bombay High Court in October last year, through advocates Karl Tamboly and Mehul Rathod, claiming that their stalls are situated at another location and that they were not part of the previous round of proceedings.

Rejecting all eight appeals, the court held that the “plaintiffs have no semblance of any right or legality to occupy the structures as they are blatantly illegal and unauthorised.” The court noted that every such case would follow the same pattern–the appellants would claim that there was a “clear suppression and non-disclosure” and argue that the due process of the law had not been followed in their eviction. The court called this a “sheer abuse of the due process of law”.

The court said that these appellants are nothing but illegal hawkers and land grabbers who occupy vacant spaces outside railway stations, which are high-footfall areas, to run their businesses. “This menace has spread across the city outside all suburban railway stations like a disease. Common people whose land is grabbed cannot withstand them due to political patronage and other obvious reasons. But when facts are glaring and unambiguous like in the present case, the court cannot be a silent spectator”, the court said.

Upholding the BMC’s demolition notice, the court imposed a penalty of ₹25,000 on two appellants and ₹50,000 on the remaining six, to be deposited within two weeks.

Advocate Mehul Rathod said, “The residents of Nemi Krishna CHSL have waited since last 26 years to get their land free from these illegal hawkers and land grabbers. The honorable Bombay High Court has done absolute justice by dismissing the 8 appeals of the illegal hawkers.”