MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday questioned the state government over its circular that made knowledge of Marathi a pre-requisite for autorickshawpermits. A division bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Anuja Prabhudessai observed that the rules “prima facie did not seem proper”. Hearing a bunch of petitions filed by auto unions in Mumbai, Thane, Bhiwandi and Mira-Bhayander, the HC said it will deliver its judgment on Tuesday.The Maharashtra government had in 2016 proposed to issue over 35,628 permits for Mumbai region, while 6,000 were designated for applicants from the rest of Maharashtra, such as Solapur, Pune among others. The state, in its directive to regional transport offices in February 2016, had made knowledge of Marathi a pre-condition for a permit.
According to the petition, rule 24 of the Maharashtra Motor Vehicles Rules mandates metal badges to a person authorized to drive public service vehicles. The rules for issuance of badges says the applicant had to satisfy the authorities about his topographical knowledge of the area of operation and working knowledge of Marathi, and any one of the languages commonly spoken in the region. The working knowledge of Marathi was therefore only for issuance of badges to drivers, but there were no rules that specified knowledge of the language for issuing auto permits for the vehicles. The government defended its circular, saying knowledge of Marathi was essential, as was a minimum educational qualification of having passed Std VIII.
The applicants were to be tested for knowledge of the language in an interview, where they would also be told to read 10 paragraphs of a Marathi book.