In a significant ruling that clarifies the legal status of street vending, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has firmly stated that only licensed and registered street vendors are entitled to operate. The court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by five street vendors seeking temporary vending space in Chandigarh's Sector 26 mandi.
Court's Verdict on Vending Rights
The division bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry delivered the judgment on Tuesday, November 11, 2025. The bench upheld the provisions of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, emphasizing that vending is permissible only after the issuance of a vending certificate and the allotment of a specific site under the law.
The court noted that among the five petitioners, only one had previously held a vending licence. However, that licence was deemed automatically cancelled due to default in payment of dues. The remaining four petitioners had never been registered as street vendors at all.
Municipal Corporation's Stance and Mass Cancellations
During the proceedings, the counsel for the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation presented startling figures. He submitted that the vendor with the cancelled licence was one among 4,003 defaulters who failed to pay installments under a payment scheme.
This scheme was approved by the Town Vending Committee on October 7, 2024, and later by the corporation's General House on November 23, 2024. While 136 vendors complied and deposited the first installment, the massive majority of 4,003 did not, leading to the automatic cancellation of their licences and allotments.
The corporation further argued that the petitioners operating inside the Sector 26 mandi fell under the jurisdiction of the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, not the 2014 Street Vending Act. It clarified that vending activities within the mandi cannot be permitted unless a specific street-vending zone is officially notified there.
Vendors' Pleas and Court's Final Directive
The street vendors had put forth several arguments in their petition. They contended that several of them had been surveyed earlier and requested a reassessment of their cases for licence issuance. They also sought a temporary vending space until the market is completely shifted to Sector 39 and pressed for a decision on their representation to the authorities.
However, the bench held that no mandamus could be issued to grant them relief since they did not hold valid licences. While dismissing the petition, the court provided a path forward for the vendors.
The bench granted liberty to the second petitioner to challenge the cancellation of his licence before the competent authority. For the remaining four petitioners, the court granted them the liberty to apply afresh for vending licences under the 2014 Act, subject to the availability of space in the officially notified vending zones in Chandigarh.
