HC bans battery-run rickshaws

The High Court yesterday banned plying of battery-run rickshaws across the country for not running with valid licences as per the law.
The court came up with the verdict after rejecting five writ petitions filed by five rickshaw owners' associations seeking its directives on the Dhaka City Corporations (DCC) and Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) last year to allow them to run such vehicles with valid licences in the city corporation areas.
The HC bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar observed that the authorities concerned cannot provide them licences for running the battery-run rickshaws as per the Traffic Control and Public Vehicle Bye-Laws, 1973.  
Ruhul Kuddus Kazal, a lawyer for DCC, told The Daily Star that plying of battery-run rickshaws was illegal following the HC verdict and the authorities could take action against such vehicles if they ran now.    
The rickshaw owners' associations in their writ petitions also had said they had applied to DCC and CCC for licences, but the authorities did not provide those.
Following the petitions, the HC in January this year issued rules upon the city corporation authorities to explain about the matter. Later, the authorities replied to the HC rules saying that they had no authority to give licences to such rickshaws to ply as per the law.