In an important judgement the Uttarakhand High Court (HC) has ruled that when the transport vehicles like three-wheelers, Vikram, Tata Magic and Maximo do not come under the definition of ‘Stage carriage’, then no route can be formulated for such vehicles.
While hearing a number of petitions against the Transport Department’s plan to give route permits to these transport vehicles, Justice Alok Singh had sought the opinion of additional Chief Standing Council AK Joshi on the issue.
Joshi disposed before the court that no stage carriage had been permitted to these vehicles. He said that transport authorities, in the event of receiving any application seeking stage carriage permit, shall take into consideration the definition of ‘stage carriage’ as provided in the Uttarakhand motor vehicle rules, 2011 and shall take division thereafter in accordance with law.
The City Bus Union held a meeting on Sunday and termed the judgement as a slap on the face of Regional Transport office (RTO). The President of union Vijay Vardhan Dandriyal said that the order is a victory of the stand taken by the union.
The issue of granting permit, the unions of city bus and these vehicles are at loggerheads for long. The city bus union objects the picking up of retail passengers by the contract carriage vehicles and charged the transport departmental officials for colluding with these contract carriage vehicles.