Motor Vehicles Act 1988 : ss. 2(1A), 93, 96 – Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines 2020 – Aggregator’s License – Claim of the petitioner to provide the service of an aggregator for two wheeler vehicles across the State of Maharashtra – Application for grant of license – Rejected by the RTO since it did not comply with the Guidelines of 2020 – Challenged to, before the High Court – However, during the course of hearing, the State government issued a notification wherein it noted that the issue of whether nontransport vehicles ought to be permitted to be used as transport vehicles including for aggregation and ride pooling requires consideration – For said purpose, a Committee was constituted – Pending the decision of the Committee, the State Government prohibited the pooling of non-transport vehicles by aggregators in order to ensure road safety of the general public and passengers at large – High Court observed that the Guidelines of 2020 leave a certain degree of latitude to the State Government and there is no policy of the State Government on the basis of which the petitioners would have an unrestricted right to obtain a licence – On appeal, held: There is no inclination to entertain the challenge to the notification – Petitioners would be at liberty to pursue the alternate remedy u/Art. 226 of the Constitution before the High Court – The correctness of the order of the RTO stands subsumed by the decision taken by the High Court to entrust the examination of the entire issue by the Committee, before it decides on the use of non-transport vehicles for the purposes of aggregation and ride pooling – Order of the RTO indicates that it has been passed on the ground that the provisions of the Guidelines of 2020 were not complied with – Once the State Government takes a final decision on the submission of the report of the Committee, the petitioners would be entitled to pursue their legal remedies after complying with such terms and conditions as may be prescribed in the decision of the State Government.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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