Delhi government must implement its notifications: HC

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said it is for the Delhi government to regulate or implement its notification on taxi and autorickshaw fares.

Justice Manmohan said the court cannot interfere every time on implementing the notifications and it is the government that has to do so.

Hearing a plea filed by autorickshaw drivers alleging that app-based taxi services providers like Uber and Ola were charging much less than the fare fixed in government notifications, the court said: "It is for the Delhi government to regulate and implement the notification. It's not appropriate for this court to regulate the implementation of the notification".

"If autorickshaws or taxis are not charging properly, how can a court interfere in it... This has to be done by the government. The government has full power to regulate it's rules," the court said.

The plea of autorickshaw drivers said that app-based taxi services providers were charging fares as low as Rs.5 per km which is less than half of the notified fares, which in turn is affecting their livelihood. But despite knowing this, the government is doing "nothing to protect their interests".

The government has utterly failed to implement its own notification vis-a-vis taxi aggregators, it added. "Besides being illegal, charging fares below the notified fares is harming the livelihood of auto rickshaw drivers," it said.

--IANS

gt/bim/vm