End of the road for Sector 7 car bazaar

[Jaswinder Singh Baidwan]

After about three decades, it is the end of the road for the car bazaar in Sector 7. Applying brakes on it, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Chandigarh Administration and the Municipal Corporation to drive the old car bazaar out of the Sector 7-C parking after taking a decision on allotting an alternative site.
For the purpose, the High Court has set March 31 as the deadline. “It is needless to mention here that in the newly allotted alternative site for the old car bazaar, all required facilities shall also be provided,” Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain has asserted.
Justice Jain also made it clear that the High Court would monitor the compliance of its directions. “In case the order is not complied with on or before March 31, the UT Finance Secretary, Municipal Commissioner, UT Chief Architect and the MC Chief Engineer shall remain present in the court to explain the lapse on their part.”
The directions came while deciding a bunch of petitions, including pleas filed by the Car Dealers Association and Sector 7-C showroom owners. The directions are significant as the Sunday car bazaar is purported to be among the biggest in north India, attracting buyers from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. From entry-level cars to flashy SUVs, you have it all. Estimates suggest that every week more than 100 used cars are sold by the dealers.
Taking the facts from the petition filed by Satpal Garg and other petitioners against the Chandigarh Administration and other respondents, Justice Jain observed that they were seeking directions for quashing the order dated January 8, 2014, whereby parking in front of their showrooms in Sector 7-C was allowed to be used for holding the car bazar. The issuance of the quashing order was being sought as the Chandigarh Administration had allowed them to open their showrooms even on Sundays.
In his detailed order, Justice Jain added: “I am of the considered opinion that it is high time the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, took an initiative for framing a policy as soon as possible for the purpose of shifting the old car bazaar from the parking of Sector 7-C to end the inconvenience being faced by showroom owners, who have been allowed to open their showrooms even on Sundays and require the parking space for their customers as well as for themselves, and to remove the element of suspicion, which is continuing for the past many years in the minds of the old car bazaar dealers.”
“Therefore, the Chandigarh Administration and the MC are hereby directed to take a firm decision about allotment of an alternative site and to shift the old car bazaar from the parking of Sector 7-C on or before March 31.”