If you have issues with order allowing free movement of e-autos, challenge it before appropriate authority: DC tells auto operators

Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner M.P. Mullai Muhilan on Thursday asked operators of conventional autorickshaws to file an appeal before the appropriate authority if they have issues with his July 26, 2024, order (notification) allowing free movement of electric autorickshaws and autorickshaws operating using methanol and ethanol as fuel, across the district.

Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner M.P. Mullai Muhilan on Thursday asked operators of conventional autorickshaws to file an appeal before the appropriate authority if they have issues with his July 26, 2024, order (notification) allowing free movement of electric autorickshaws and autorickshaws operating using methanol and ethanol as fuel, across the district.

At a meeting with autorickshaw operators in his office, Mr. Muhilan reiterated that the Union government has freed e-rickshaws from permit requirements across the country. The sub-section (1) of Section 66 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, will not apply to e-rickshaws which are exempt from having permits. Hence, he cannot prevent the plying of e-rickshaws across the district.

Mr. Muhilan said that his order was also based on the Karnataka High Court’s direction to the Deputy Commissioner in a batch of writ petitions filed before the court questioning the two notifications – November 24, 2022 and January 23, 2023 – of the Deputy Commissioner.

The notifications pertained limiting the operation of all autorickshaws within the two zones created in Mangaluru taluk and colour codes specified to them (to autorickshaws). While Zone I was meant for operating all autorickshaws within the jurisdiction of Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC), Zone II was relating to operating them in rural areas of Mangaluru taluk, outside the jurisdiction of the MCC.

The two notifications did not exempt e-rickshaws and such autorickshaws operating using methanol and ethanol as fuel from the conditions imposed.

The court in its order said: “...(b) The impugned notification dated November 24, 2022, and January 23, 2023, are quashed, but directing the Deputy Commissioner/District Magistrate, Mangaluru, Dakshina Kannada (the second respondent) to reconsider the issue of restricting the use of e-auto rickshaws either as a temporary measure or a permanent measure in Zone I Mangaluru, subject to periodical review...”

The Deputy Commissioner in his July 26, 2024, notification said that Mangaluru Police Commissioner in his February 5, 2024, report to the Deputy Commissioner said that e-auto rickshaws can be allowed to operate in Mangaluru city. They were also needed to control air and sound pollution.