Don't allow quadricycles to run, Delhi HC urged

A new category of four-wheelers - quadricycle - which will be allowed to ply in cities across India from Oct 1, came under the Delhi High Court scanner Wednesday after a plea challenged a notification that has allowed them to run.

A division bench of Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw asked counsel for the central and Delhi governments to take instructions on the issue where the plea claimed that quadricycles do not have proper safety measures as required as per the standard of Indian roads.

The plea filed by two practising Supreme Court lawyers, Kirti Mishra and Arvind Sharma, said quadricycles were not safe for Indian road conditions.

Though used in many parts of the world as personal transport vehicles, they have been proved to be "unsafe on many parameters".

The quadricycles have a hard top and doors, and are expected to largely replace the auto-rickshaws.

Advocates Purvesh Buttan and Ritika Gambhir, appearing for the petitioners, argued that the Centre, before issuing the its Feb 9 notification, should have considered and implemented the safety measures suggested by an expert committee.

The road transport ministry has completely ignored the suggestions of the Tyagi Committee, which suggested that quadricycles were not safe for Indian roads, it said.

Challenging the notification, the lawyers said the government ignored the report of the expert panel and "acted arbitrarily and injudiciously in bringing out the impugned notification".

The Centre had constituted the Tyagi Committee under the chairmanship of Dinesh Tyagi, director of the International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT), for the purpose of framing rules and regulations for the proposed new category of vehicles.

The rules were to be included in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules under "Quadricycles" and to decide the parameters for their safety, the plea said.

The plea sought quashing of the notification and implementation of the Tyagi Committee recommendations before the quadricycles are introduced.

"The introduction of new vehicle by the name of quadricycle by way of subordindate legislation is a tailor-made rule to favour some industrial houses which have the vehicles ready to ply on roads from Oct 1," the plea claimed.

It said quadricycles were considered unsafe in Europe, Africa and some parts of Asia.

"It is rather unfortunate that the Centre has miserably failed to consider any of the safety aspects, valid suggestions given especially by an expert committee constituted for this very purpose," the petition said.

"Quadricycles are proven to be unsafe and not environmentally friendly worldwide," it claimed.

"It may cause severe accidents if it plies on Indian roads, besides the fact that over a period of time, the central government may implement its hidden agenda of phasing out or putting an end to the millions of auto-rickshaws... which will cause severe hardship and irretrievable loss to millions of auto-rickshaw drivers and their families," it said.