Interim ban on plying of erickshaws on Delhi roads will continue with the Delhi High Court today stating it cannot permit something that is not provided under the law.
"We cannot permit something that is not provided under the law. So make the law," a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and S Mridul said while refusing to lift the ban on running erickshaws in the interregnum between now and framing of the rules for regulating them.
It said it will see on August 14, the next date of hearing, whether any orders can be passed regarding plying of the erickshaws on city roads. There are about two lakh erickshaws in the national capital territory of Delhi, all of them unregistered.
The bench also questioned both the Centre and Delhi government "why no compensation has been paid to the lady who lost her child in an accident with an erickshaw?" On July 29, a woman carrying her three-year-old son was hit from behind by an erickshaw and the child had fallen from her lap into a hot oil pan at a sweet shop and died.
Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand assured the court,"We will clear the issue of compensation today itself." Meanwhile, advocate R K Kapoor, appearing for Battery Rickshaw Welfare Association, pleaded before the court that livelihood of over 50,000 families is at stake and sought lifting of the ban as a "humanitarian measure".
The bench, however, refused to do so at the moment saying "we would not have heard you if there had been no humanitarian angle and we have to balance humanitarian angle of 15 million citizens also".
It also said, "Instead of a guillotine hanging over your head, it would be good for you if there is a law in place. You can then drive erickshaws legitimately."
It also asked advocate Sugrive Dubey, appearing for Shanawaz Khan on whose plea erickshaws were banned, to go through the revised guidelines and see if they are possible. "Let him examine the guidelines. We will see on next date if we can pass an order on these lines (removing ban on erickshaws till law is made) or not," the court said.
During the brief proceedings, the court was informed by the Centre about the revisions/additions it has made in the guidelines submitted before the bench on August 8.
The Centre also submitted that it has included some of the suggestions made by the bench on the last date of hearing.
The ASG told the bench that process of framing rules under the Motor Vehicles Act to regulate erickshaws will take two months and the guidelines are an interim measure.
As per the revised guidelines, the state transport department now proposes to open centres which will consider the applications for grant of licence for driving erickshaws, subject to fulfilling of requisite conditions.
The department also proposes to issue identity card-cum- temporary permission for driving erickshaws in the National Capital Territory of Delhi and these would be valid till October 15, 2014.
The ASG, however, said it would not feasible to issue temporary registrations, as is done for new cars, and said the revised guidelines "are the best we can do till the rules are framed".
The response came on the court's query whether erickshaws can be issued temporary registration as is done for new cars.
The court was also informed that two panels have been set up for recommending rules as well as broad framework of guidelines for making rules to regulate erickshaws.
On August 8, the court had refused to grant interim nod for plying erickshaws despite Ministry of Road Transport and Highways filing draft guidelines for framing rules for these vehicles.
Putting its foot down, the court had said battery-run e-rickshaws will have to comply with the law and they cannot be allowed to ply without registration, insurance and valid driving licenses of their drivers.
As per the guidelines submitted before the court earlier, the various proposed actions included that e-rickshaws will not ply on "high speed" roads and their maximum speed would be less than 25 km per hour with maximum capacity of four persons and 50 kg of load.
The revised proposal filed by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways states that "e-rickshaw associations may make an insurance corpus of Rs 10 lakh to cover cases of any grievous hurt or fatal incident for disbursement".
In case of grievous hurt, compensation of Rs 25,000 would be given to the victim and in the case of death by accident caused by e-rickshaw, Rs one lakh be given as compensation.
The proposal also said the Delhi government will issue identity marks and stickers for e-rickshaws.
The court was hearing a petition filed by the Battery Rickshaw Welfare Association seeking review of an earlier order to ban e-rickshaws on the roads in the national capital.
The high court on July 31 had ordered a ban on plying of e-rickshaws in the national capital, saying they are illegally running on Delhi roads and "prima facie a hazard to other traffic as well citizens".
The court's directions had come on a petition filed by social worker Shanawaz Khan alleging that e-rickshaws, which are operated with power output of 650 to 850 watt and are designed to ferry only four people, including the driver, were carrying more than eight people at a time, endangering their lives.
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