Second-hand book market stays put: HC

Chandigarh, February 2

The second-hand book market near the Sector-15 petrol station is here to stay. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has slammed shut the chapter of its shifting to a new location.

Dismissing the petition against the current location of the kiosks, offering rare and contemporary books, the high court has asserted that the Administration has not “committed any error in granting the sites for the resettlement of booksellers”.

The market was initially located near the Panjab University gate, on the road separating Sectors 14 and 15, but was relocated to its new site, near the subway at Sector 15.

Aggrieved by the action, Ashutosh Vermani and other petitioners had moved the high court against the Chandigarh Administration and other respondents.

In their petition placed before the Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Mahesh Grover, the petitioners putting up in Sector 15-B claimed the makeshift structures opposite their houses were “eyesores”. The petitioners contended these structures were also in complete violation of the area’s zoning plan.

Going into the background of the issue, the Bench asserted the booksellers dealing with pre-used books were initially “operating from the areas meant for pedestrians opposite the university gate” in the Sector 15 main market. The activity “resulted in a traffic hazard, when people stopped to buy books from them”.

The Bench added: “With the laudable objective of solving this problem, the site in question was chosen by the Administration to provide temporary structures so as to rehabilitate these booksellers and also to avoid a traffic hazard created by their activities in the previous site….

“It is evident that the site in the zoning plan originally was shown as a public space and meant for use of landscape features, educational, public and community buildings and public amenities.

“With a conscious decision, the change of land use was permitted by the Chief Administrator, Chandigarh, for resettlement of book sellers' platforms, in respect of the sites in Sector 15-A….

“On due consideration of the matter, we are of the opinion that the Administration by way of abundant caution had granted the change of land use for resettlement of the book sellers' platforms….

“The original purpose enshrined in the zoning plan gave an ample elbowroom to them to carve out such sites, keeping in view the fact that the site was originally meant for educational purposes.

“In our opinion, the sale of books by creating infrastructure for them would certainly be a step in this direction more so, when the area is surrounded by colleges and the university”.