HC asks AAP govt to issue fresh permits for autos by March 31

The Delhi High Court today directed the AAP government to complete its process of issuing 10,000 fresh auto permits by March 31 next year to increase the number of auto rickshaws plying on the city roads.
"The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi is directed to complete the process for issuance of fresh Letters of Intent (LoIs) by March 31, 2017," Justice Manmohan said.
The court's order came on the Delhi government's plea that it be allowed to start a fresh process which would be carried out online to ensure transparency.
The Delhi government has filed an application in the ongoing plea by some autodrivers who have moved the court challenging the cancellation of 324 permits to ply auto rickshaws in the city.

The permits were cancelled by the government on receiving complaints of irregularities in the allotment process.
The high court gave its consent to start the fresh process while observing that it was in favour of protecting the 324 individuals who had purchased autos after getting the LoIs from the Delhi government keeping in view their financial liability.

It allowed 324 drivers who had purchased autos after getting the LoIs in 2015 from the Delhi government's transport department to participate in the process.
"The parties (the Delhi government and the auto drivers) have agreed that the Delhi government shall initiate process for fresh 10,000 three-seater auto rickshaw (TSR) licences within a period of two weeks.

Meanwhile, the court did not stop CBI from probing the
alleged irregularities in issuance of the permits in 2014-15 for plying auto rickshaws here and asked it to file its status report before the next date of hearing -- February 22, 2017.
It also asked the Delhi government to file its progress report by the next date of hearing.
Earlier, the high court had said that it cannot uphold the permits given under the year 2014-15 as the "entire process was vitiated" and appeared to be "rigged".
It had come to the prima facie finding that the earlier process was vitiated after going through a CBI status report which had said that of the 251 applications received on first two days, only four were processed and rest had gone missing.

The government had in 2014 advertised its proposal to issue 10,000 permits to ply autos and the applications were received from January 12, 2015 onwards.
Thereafter, the government had issued 932 Letters of Intent which were later scrapped on receiving complaints of irregularities in the allotment process.
The government, in its application, has said it had found that LoIs were not issued in chronological order, as was specified in the advertisement, and that in several instances the LoIs were given to intermediaries, like financiers and auto dealers, and not to the applicants.
CBI had said that "during investigation persons who acted as middlemen were examined which revealed that they submitted certain forms after due date in collusion with officials of auto rickshaw units".

The number of autorickshaws plying on Delhi roads at present is 80,000. With the new permits, the total strength would have been taken to 90,000.
To strengthen the public transport, the AAP government in December 2014 had said that it will issue permits for 10,000 new autorickshaws. However, the process was halted due to some irregularities in the process.