The Delhi High Court Friday issued notice to the central government on a plea challenging a notification that has allowed to operation of a new category of four-wheelers -- quadricycles -- in cities across India from Oct 1.
A division bench of Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw, however, refused to stay the notification which allows the vehicle to run as it sought the government's response by Dec 2.
The plea filed by two practising Supreme Court lawyers, Kirti Mishra and Arvind Sharma, said quadricycles were not safe in the Indian road conditions and also claimed that they do not have proper safety measures required as per the standard of Indian roads.
Though used in many parts of the world as personal transport vehicles, they have proved to be "unsafe on many parameters", the plea said.
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 central government, before issuing the its Feb 9 notification, should have considered and implemented the safety measures suggested by an expert committee.
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They contended that the road transport ministry has completely ignored the suggestions of the committee, which suggested that quadricycles were not safe for Indian roads.
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 central government had constituted the 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. It said quadricycles were considered unsafe in Europe, Africa and some parts of Asia.
"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.