The Calcutta High Court has recently dismissed a PIL which had alleged that e-rickshaws are running in the Howrah district in the State of West Bengal without being registered in terms of provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
The PIL has been filed by one Rama Prasad Sarkar seeking a direction to the respondents to implement the notification dated April 27, 2015 issued by the Department of Transport, Government of West Bengal in Howrah district. The said notification provides for taking necessary action for registration of e-rickshaws.
Having examined the record, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj noted that the issue is confined to only registration of the e-rickshaws. Vide notification dated August 30, 2016 issued by the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, Government of India, operation of e-rickshaws has been exempted from obtaining an e-permit.
The Bench observed that earlier also, a bunch of petitions were filed as PIL which were disposed of by order dated August 17, 2018 expressing trust and hope in respect of completion of the entire process of registration of all e-rickshaws plying in the State within a time-bound period. Review application was filed in that matter wherein by order dated August 5, 2019, the time limit was extended to register the e-rickshaws up to August 31, 2019 by further observing that beyond August 31, 2019, the State shall not permit any unregistered e-rickshaws to ply in the State.
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It is pointed out that alleging non-compliance of the aforesaid order, contempt petitions are also pending in the High Court.
Having regard to the aforesaid, the Court opined that once an order has already been passed by this Court, then for the same purpose, repeated PILs need not be entertained.
“If the petitioner feels that the order, earlier passed by this Court, is not being complied with, he would be at liberty to place the relevant material in this regard in the pending contempt petition,” the Court ordered while dismissing the PIL.
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