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Diesel taxis with all-India tourist permits would now be able to operate in the national capital territory (NCT) till their permits expire.
The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday modified its earlier order, which will now benefit 64,000 taxis and employees of business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, who are picked up from Delhi and dropped to their offices in Gurgaon and Noida. There will be no further registration of diesel taxis.
The apex court will hear the matter again end-July. The Bench presided over by Chief Justice T S Thakur asked the central government to frame rules on the safety and security of the passengers and fares that could be charged from them. Meanwhile, the road transport and highways ministry constituted a three-member committee to prepare a policy framework for taxi and other transport operators.
"The committee will look into the issues raised by taxi operators and come up with appropriate policy recommendations to address the same in a time-bound manner," said a ministry press release. The SC asked transport authorities to renew permits subject to the operators complying with the government directive.
City taxis can operate in the NCT, subject to permits countersigned by the authorities. Registration of new taxis shall be permitted only if the vehicle can operate on dual fuel technology, namely petrol, compressed natural gas or either.
The court had passed an order banning registration of diesel vehicles above 2,000cc in December 2015 and extended the deadline twice, but later refused to extend the deadline further. This had created unrest among the taxi operators and aggregators such as Uber and Ola. Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar expressed his difficulty in implementing the court orders as the central government has to take into account rules affecting the whole country. The court will consider the issue at the next hearing.
Senior counsel Harish Salve, assisting the court, submitted that it was for the government to fix the problem regarding rules, which have to be amended to meet the situation arising from air pollution, which made Delhi the dirtiest city. He said all-India tourist licences should not be used for operating point-to-point services like picking and dropping BPO staff. Such licence should be used only for tourist purposes, he said.
