Calcutta: The high court on Monday issued an interim stay on the Nabadiganta Industrial Township Development Authority's decision to demolish 730 structures belonging to "unauthorised hawkers" in Sector V after the advocate-general submitted that the state would soon frame rules to govern street vendors.

Justice Debangsu Basak adjourned the hearing of the case till August 13 and directed Nabadiganta Industrial Township (NDITA), the administrative body for Sector V, not to demolish the makeshift stalls till further orders.

Moving the petition on behalf of the hawkers, advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said: "NDITA recently announced on microphones that hawkers will have to vacate pavements in Sector V. The norm demands that the authorities issue notices to the hawkers before evicting them. Since no such notice has been served, the decision taken by the authorities should be considered invalid."

Advocate-general Kishore Duta said: "In the light of the National Hawker Policy, the government has already drawn up a scheme for hawkers across the state. Rules are also being framed to regulate them. Till then, the government will not encourage the eviction of hawkers."

The court accepted the advocate general's request to adjourn the hearing for a few days.

"Since coming to power in 2011, the Trinamul Congress government has, on several occasions, prayed for the adjournment of cases related to eviction of vendors and submitted that the government would soon come up with a policy for hawkers. But till date nothing has been done," said Anindya Sunder Das, a lawyer not connected with the present case.

NDITA had asked the hawkers to clear the pavements bordering major thoroughfares, including the road that leads to Ring Road near Godrej Waterside from the Wipro crossing, the stretch from the SDF intersection in GN block to the Technopolis building and the road in front of Webel Bhavan in EN block.

The hawkers had shut shop on Friday to protest the order asking them to leave. NDITA has earmarked two plots of land to relocate the hawkers but the latter have dismissed both as unviable.

Debashis Sen, the chairman of NDITA, said on Monday that the authorities would abide by the court order.

Bhabotosh Sarkar, a leader of the Salt Lake Sector V Hawkers' Welfare Association, expressed happiness at the court's decision. "We will take out a victory rally on August 1," Sarkar said.

The hawkers, too, celebrated the court order by converging in front of Webel Bhavan.