The Delhi high court on Thursday dismissed an appeal against a single judge's order rejecting hawkers' plea for permission to operate near the historic Qutab Minar in New Delhi.

"Hawkers should be removed from all protected monuments," a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice B C Patel and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul observed.

The court took note of the fact that the petitioners had not been given licence by the Archaeological Survey of India to hawk at the Qutab Minar.

In their appeal filed through counsel Keshav Kaushik, 26 hawkers had challenged the September 10 order of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog refusing to review his earlier order on removal of the hawkers.

Kaushik submitted that their removal was against the National Policy for Urban Street Vendors and that they had been there for generations.

However, the Bench said the policy did not provide for hawking contrary to statutory provisions, which prohibited such activities in protected monuments.

Justice Nandrajog had said they could not sell their goods in the vicinity of a protected monument without getting a licence from the ASI under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Remains Rules, 1959.

According to Rule 8(d) of the said rules, hawking or selling of goods, in any form, is prohibited within a protected monument, except in accordance with the terms and conditions of a licence granted by an archaeological officer.

In view of this rule, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi had on February 19, 1998 issued an order banning tehbazari at the Qutab Minar.