Hawkers vs hawker over Monti permits

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin and four Monti hawkers yesterday filed a judicial protest in the First Hall of the Civil Court against Alan Debattista, the Ministry for Competitiveness and Communication and the Director of Commercial Services within this ministry, the Minister for Investment, Industry and Information Technology and the Parliamentary Secretary for Small Businesses and the Self- Employed.

The UHM and Stephen Antoine Buhagiar, Mario Casa, Renald Attard and Christopher Micallef referred to the agreement concluded on May 18 between the government and the UHM on the subject of the permanent site for the Valletta open air market (the Monti).

Following this agreement, the hawkers were asked to set up their stands in Valletta. However, Mr Buhagiar, Mr Casa, Mr Attard and Mr Micallef said they were prohibited from doing so following a warrant of prohibitory injunction issued by the courts at the request of Mr Debattista.

They said that, as a result, they could not earn their living.

In their protest, the union and the four hawkers pleaded that Mr Debattista, a hawker himself, had claimed, when he had requested the issue of the warrant, that his permit to set up his stand in Valletta, at a site now allocated to the four other hawkers, had been revoked by the authorities. Mr Debattista had alleged that this was an abuse of administrative power by the authorities.

But the four hawkers insisted they had nothing to do with the revocation of Mr Debattista's permit. If the authorities had acted illegally, the four hawkers could not be held liable in damages.

Mr Buhagiar, Mr Casa, Mr Attard and Mr Micallef added that they were suffering damages as a result of the warrant of prohibitory injunction. They thus held the authorities and Mr Debattista liable for damages.

Lawyers Ian Spiteri Bailey and Ingrid Bianco acted for the UHM and the four hawkers.