India, April 2 -- The Bombay high court on Tuesday officially signed an order directing the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to evict all unlicensed hawkers in Colaba, under police protection.

The court had verbally asked the BMC to evict the unlicensed hawkers on March 26 after the civic body informed it that there were only 83 licensed hawkers in the area, as opposed to the 253 claimed by the Colaba Causeway Tourism Hawkers Stall Union (CCTHSU). The court had said it would sign the order on Monday after the union requested it to give the remaining 170 unlicensed hawkers time to vacate.

The official direction to evict the unlicensed hawkers, issued by the division bench of justices Ajay Gadkari and Kamal Khata, came after a lon...