HC rules Railways eviction of Sealdah platform vendors ‘lawful’

Kolkata: Upholding Railways decision of eviction, the Calcutta High Court directed the evicted vendors of Sealdah Railway Station platform to participate in e-tender for allocations of stalls under the new 2017 catering policy.

The Bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi was moved by the Sealdah Railway platform vendors (appellants) challenging a single bench judgement and order that dismissed their writ petition.

The appellants submitted they are licensed platform vendors who were evicted on the basis of 2017 catering policy. They said they were paying licence fees on and from October 2005 when a new policy was introduced handing over A, B and C category Railway stations to IRCTC. Petty vendors alleged Railways didn’t execute any vending licence agreement with them and neither issued vending cards but only food safety licences.

In 2013, they were asked to clear off their license fee dues by paying Rs 943 per month. They submitted they cleared all dues payable upto 2020 but were also asked to switch to multipurpose stalls which they didn’t. They were then asked to clear a hefty amount of Rs 11 lakh as arrears of occupational charges from 2017 to 2020, including licence fee in excess of Rs 3,29,000 per annum and GST on it.

The vendors said the hefty sum was arbitrary as they barely earned during Covid period and that Railways had no authority over IRCTC which was handed over the management charges. The vendors further called the 2010 policy discriminatory. This policy awarded the contract of existing major and mining catering units to zonal Railways while IRCTC was left with running food plaza, food courts and fast food units.

Vendors also demanded striking down the 2017 policy which didn’t allow renewal of licence but provisioned for fresh licences on the basis of e-tender.

Railways submitted that the 2010 policy was scrapped and replaced by the 2017 one. Since the vendors continued business, the arrear fees as per rates under new policy are needed to be paid by them.

The court noted that the licensed vendors were evicted in November 2022 as they refused to opt for multipurpose stalls as per 2017 policy.

The court observed: “Mere issuance of licences to the appellants for a considerable prior period and the quantum of such past licence fee cannot be the lone driving factor.”

Observing that the eviction was lawful, the bench said the vendors are free to participate in e-tenders for allocation of stalls under new policy and refused to interfere with the impugned judgement and order.