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Shanker Gupta & Anr. vs. New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) & Anr.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2026:DHC:7756-DBDecided 10 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
W.P.(C) 13250/2026CNR: DLHC010429642026
Justice Prathiba M. Singh · Justice Vikas Mahajan

Background

Two brothers had jointly held a "Tehbazari" (street-vending) licence at a Connaught Place site since 1984, a joint status formally recognized by earlier government committees and reflected in a 1999 possession letter. During NDMC's fresh digital survey of vendors, its computer software could record only one vendor's name per site, threatening to leave the younger brother's long-recognized joint entitlement out of the official record entirely.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that failing to record both brothers' names would unfairly harm rights that multiple official bodies had already recognized over decades. As a practical interim step, it allowed the elder brother's name to be entered in the ongoing survey (on behalf of both brothers, without needing a fresh no-objection certificate), but directed that when the formal Certificate of Vending is eventually issued by the Town Vending Committee, it must be issued in the joint names of both brothers, exactly as their historical rights required.

Lesson Learnt

A government department's software or process limitation cannot be allowed to quietly erase a citizen's long-established legal right: the final legal document must still reflect the true, full entitlement even if a temporary administrative record has to be simplified for practical reasons.

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