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PETITIONER: AZAD RICKHAW PULLERS UNION (REGD.) CH. TOWN HALL, AMRITSAR &

       Vs.

RESPONDENT: STATE OF PUNJAB & OTHERS

DATE OF JUDGMENT05/08/1980

BENCH: KRISHNAIYER, V.R. BENCH: KRISHNAIYER, V.R. PATHAK, R.S. REDDY, O. CHINNAPPA (J)

CITATION:  1981 AIR   14            1981 SCR  (1) 366  CITATOR INFO :  R          1985 SC1737  (3,5,6,9,11,20,22)  E&D        1987 SC 648  (4)

ACT:      Constitution of  India 1950,  Articles 32  and 38 & The Punjab Cycle  Rickshaws (Regulation of Rickshaws) Act, 1976- Court framing scheme for cycle rickshaw d rivers.

HEADNOTE:      The Punjab  Cycle Rickshaws  (Regulation of  Rickshaws) Act, 1976  (Punjab Act 41 of 1975), was designed to regulate the issue  of licenses to actual drivers of cycle rickshaws, plying within the municipal areas of the State.      The petitioners  in their Writ Petitions challenged the Act. ^      HELD: (Per  Krishna Iyer  & Chinnappa Reddy, JJ. Pathak J. agreeing with the scheme of directions framed).      A. The Court framed the following scheme:           (a)  Every   rickshaw   puller   including   every                petitioner, who  has been  a licensee  within                one year  of the coming into force of the Act                shall be  entitled to  apply to the Municipal                Commissioner  for   a  certificate  or  other                document to  the effect  that he  has been  a                licensee for rickshaw pulling. [369 F]           (b)   The Municipal  Commissioner will  verify the                records  and   will   grant   the   necessary                certificate  or  other  document  within  one                month from  the date of the application. [369                G]           (c)   on receipt  of the municipal certificate the                rickshaw puller  will  apply  to  the  Credit                Guarantee Corporation  of India (Small Loans)                under  the   Guarantee  Scheme  of  1971  for                advance of a loan upto Rs. 900. [369 H-370 A]           (d)   The loan  amount  shall  be  repaid  by  the rickshaw puller  in 15  monthly instalments.  If  there  are delayed payments  of instalments  of loan,  higher  rate  of interest will be recoverable. [370 F]           (e)  When   the  rickshaw   pullers   during   the                agricultural  season  go  to  work  in  their

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              fields, they  shall nominate  other  rickshaw                pullers  without   employment  to   ply   the                rickshaws during  that season.  The Municipal                Commissioner,   if    satisfied   that    the                nomination  made  is  bona  fide  will  issue                licence to  such pullers  or nominees  of the                licensed    rickshaw    pullers,    in    the                agricultural season. [370 H-371 A]      B. (I)     Under the  Constitutional system  courts are                havens of  refuge for  the  toiler,  not  the                exploiter, for  the weaker claimant of social                justice, not the stronger pretender who seeks                to sustain  the status  quo ante  by judicial                writ in  the name  of fundamental  rights.  -                [367 E] 367           (2) No  higher duty  or more solemn responsibility                rests upon  this Court A than to uphold every                State measure that translates into living law                the  preambular  promise  of  social  justice                reiterated in Article 38 of the Constitution.                [F]           (3) The  success of  well-meant statutory  schemes                depends  on   the  symbiosis  of  legislative                embargo on  exploitative  working  conditions                and   viable    facilities   or    acceptable                alternatives whereby  shackles are shaken off                and  self-ownership   substituted.   Judicial                engineering to-  wards this  goal  is  better                social justice  than dehumanised adjudication                on the vires of legislation. [H-368 A]

JUDGMENT:      ORIGINAL JURISDICTION: Writ Petition Nos. 839 and 563 / 79.                     (Under Article 32 of the Constitution)      V. M. Tarkunde and E. C. Agarwala for the Petitioner in W. P. No. 839/79.      R. S. Sharma and S. M. Ashri for the Petitioner in W.P. No. 563/ 79.      O. P.  Sharma and  R. C. Bhatia for the RR. No. 1 in WP Nos. 839 and 563.      Naunit Lal for RR 2 in WP Nos. 839 and 563.      The following Judgments were delivered:      KRISHNA IYER,  J.-The challenge in these writ petitions compel s  to remind  ourselves that under our constitutional system courts  are havens  of refuge for the toiler, not the exploiter, for  the weaker  claimant of  social justice, not the stronger  pretender who  seeks to sustain the status quo ante by  judicial writ  in the name of fundamental right. No higher duty  or more  solemn responsibility  rests upon this court than  to uphold  every State  measure that  translates into living  law the  preambular promise  of social  justice reiterated in  Article 38 of the Constitution. We might have been  called   upon  to   examine   from   this   angle   of constitutionalised humanism,  the vires  of the Punjab Cycle Rickshaws (Regulation of Rickshaws) Act, 1976 (Punjab Act 41 of 1975) (the Act for short), designed to deliver the tragic tribe of  rickshaw pullers,  whose lot is sweat, toil, blood and tears,  from the exploitative clutches of cycle rickshaw owners by a statutory ban on non-owner rickshaw drivers. But negative bans,  without supportive  schemes, can be a remedy aggravating  the  malady.  For,  the  hungry  human  animal,

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euphemistically called  rickshaw puller,  loses, in the name of mercy,  even the  opportunity to  slave and live. So, the success of  such well-meant statutory schemes depends on the symbiosis of  legislative embargo  on  exploitative  working conditions and  viable facilities or acceptable alternatives whereby shackles are shaken off and 368 self-ownership  substituted.  Judicial  engineering  towards this  goal   is  better   social  justice  than  dehumanised adjudication on  the vires of legislation. Court and counsel agreed on  this constructive  approach  and  strove  through several adjournments,  to mould  a scheme  of acquisition of cycle  rickshaws   by  licensed   rickshaw  pullers  without financial hurdles,  suretyship problems  and, more than all, that heartless  enemy, at  the implementation  level of  all progressive  projects   best   left   unmentioned.   Several adjournments, several  formulae and  several  modi  fictions resulted in  reaching  a  hopefully  workable  proposal.  In fairness to  the  State,  we  must  mention  that  when  the impugned legislation  was  enacted  Government  had  such  a supportive financial  arrangement and  many rickshaw-pullers had been  baled out  of their  economic bondage.  Some hitch somewhere  prevented   several  desperate  rickshaw  drivers getting the benefit, which drove them to this Court. Anyway, all is  well that  ends well  and judicial activism gets its highest bonus  when its  order wipes  some tears  from  some eyes. Here, the bench and the bar have that reward.      These   prefatory    observations   explain    why    a pronouncement of  the validity of the Act is not called for, although prima  facie, we  see no  constitutional sin in the statute as  now framed.  We now  proceed to  set out  in our judgment the terms and conditions which will carry with them the implications  and obligations  of  undertakings  to  the court so  far as  the parties  to the  case  are  concerned. Counsel for  the Slate  assures us that the Credit Guarantee Corporation of  India (Small  Loans) will  also abide by the court’s direction  although not  a party  formally. So also, the Punjab  National Bank  which  is  the  financing  agency parties have agreed upon.      There is no dispute. that the purpose of the statute is obviously benign  as  is  manifest  from  the  Statement  of objects and Reason which runs thus:           In order to eliminate the exploitation of rickshaw      pullers by the middlemen and for giving a fillip to the      scheme of  the State Government for arranging interest-      free loans  for the  actual pullers  to enable  them to      purchase  their   own  rickshaws,   it  is   considered      necessary to  regulate the  issue of licences in favour      of the actual drivers of cycle-rickshaws, plying within      the municipal areas of the State.      Section 3 which clamps down the impugned ban read thus:           3(1) Notwithstanding  anything  contained  to  the      contrary in the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911, or any rule      or order  or bye-law  made thereunder  or any other law      for the time being in force, no 369      Owner of  a cycle rickshaw shall be granted any licence      in respect  of his cycle rickshaw nor his licence shall      be  renewed   by  any  municipal  authority  after  the      commencement of  this Act  unless the cycle rickshaw is      to be plied by such owner himself;           (2) Every  licence in  respect of a cycle rickshaw      granted or  renewed prior  to the  commencement of this      Act shall  stand revoked,  on the expiry of a period of      thirty days  after such  commencement if  it  does  not

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    conform to the provisions of this Act.      The State  was alive  to the  need for  positive rescue measures beyond  blanket ban  on licensing and so decided to provide interest-free  loans to  actual rickshaw  pliers  so that  they  could  acquire  their  own  rickshaws  and  free themselves from  the coils  of middlemen who preyed upon the little earnings  from the toils of the pullers. Luckily, the nationalised banks  collaborated in  this socially  oriented Scheme called  the Credit  Guarantee  Corporation  of  India (Small  Loans)   Guarantee  Scheme,  1971.  And  the  Credit Corporation agreed  to stand  surety for  the amounts  to be advanced by  banks to  rickshaw pliers. Certainly, the Union of  Rickshaw   Pliers-the  petitioner-readily  accepted  the conditions designed  for their  deliverance since  they  had nothing to lose except their chains.      Thus, we  have all  the factors  ready to  cooperate in effectuating the  purpose of saving the rickshaw pullers and making them  owners. All  that we have to do is to set out a self-working, specific  scheme which makes the statutory ban not a  negative, self-defeating  interdict, but  a  positive economic manumission.  All the counsel have played a role in the dynamic  process which  has  resulted  in  the  judicial project we are giving effect to.      Every rickshaw  plier, including  every petitioner, who has been  a licensee  in the  Amritsar or other municipality within one  year of the coming into force of the Act will be entitled to  apply to  the Municipal Commissioner within one month from  today for a certificate or other document to the effect that  he has  been a  licensee for  rickshaw  pulling within the aforesaid period. The Municipal Commissioner will verify the  records on  receipt of such application and will grant the necessary certificate or other document within one month from  the date  of application. He shall not delay the issuance of  the certificate.  He shall  not be over-strict, but shall  be liberal  in the  exercise of  the  certificate issuing power.  (Punctiliousness, especially with the weaker sections,   is   the   path   to   harassment,   corruption, dilatoriness and  exasperation. Welfare measures often breed de-moralisation through  heartless legalism  and  this  very case is, to some extent, an illustration). On receipt of the municipal certificate, the rickshaw puller concerned 370 will apply  to the  Credit Guarantee  Corporation  of  India (Small Loans),  under the  Guarantee Scheme of 1971, praying to the  said Corporation  that it  stand  guarantee  to  the Punjab National Bank (or other schedule bank mutually agreed upon) for  advance of  a loan  upto Rs.  900 (and in special cases for  a larger  sum if  satisfied that  the price  of a cycle rickshaw  is more  than Rs.  900). The Punjab National Bank (or  other scheduled bank mutually chosen) will receive a sum  of Rs.  SO by  way of  deposit towards the loan to be advanced to  the applicant.  The rickshaw  pliers shall make this initial  deposit to  be eligible for the bank loan. The balance of  the loan  shall  be  guaranteed  by  the  Credit Guarantee Corporation  of India  (Small Loans) whereupon the concerned bank  will advance the sum needed for the purchase of a  cycle rickshaw to the manufacturer or vendor indicated by the applicant.      Thereupon, the  applicant (rickshaw  puller) will  take delivery of  the cycle  rickshaw  and  produce  the  voucher evidencing purchase  and delivery  of the  rickshaw and,  if needed, produce  the rickshaw  for physical  verification by the  bank’s   officials  within  one  week  of  taking  such delivery. and  thereafter whenever  directed. He  will  also sign the  necessary forms  and undertakings  required by the

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bank so  as to  hypothecate the  cycle rickshaw in favour of the bank.  So far  as the payment of interest to the bank is concerned, both  sides agree that it will be governed by the Scheme for  advance to  the cycle rickshaw pullers framed by the State  Government. The  bank shall advance 95% by way of loan towards  the purchase of the cycle rickshaw. The sum of Rs. 50  to be  deposited initially by the rickshaw puller is expected to  cover the remaining 5 % . The loan amount shall be repaid  by the  rickshaw puller  concerned in  15 monthly instalments or in weekly or daily instalments so that by the end of each month 1/15th of the amount is cleared). If there are delayed  payments of  instalments of loans, higher rates of  interest  will  be  recoverable  from  the  loanee  (the rickshaw pliers)  as per  the 1971  scheme.  The  amount  of interest, in  case instalments are paid duly, will be met by the Government  as an act of relief for the rickshaw pliers. The rickshaw  pliers shall,  or  purchase,  hypothecate  the vehicles to  the bank  which advances the loan and this will be an undertaking to the court.      The  petitioner   union  will   be  permitted   by  the Municipality to  set up  and run  a workshop  for repair and allied types  of work  and a  service station for the cycle- rickshaws. Sufficient  space will  be  allowed  in  suitable places for  rickshaw stands  and safe  keeping  of  rickshaw within  the  limitations  of  availability  and  subject  to moderate charges.      A realistic understanding of the life-style of rickshaw pliers in  Amritsar indicates  that during  the agricultural season many of them 371 go  to   work  nominating   other  rickshaw  pliers  without employment to  A ply  the rickshaws  during that season. The Municipal Commissioner.  if satisfied  that  the  nomination made is bona fide, will issue licences to such surrogates or nominees  of   the  licensed   rickshaw   pliers   for   the agricultural season.      The  bank  which  advances  the  loan  and  the  Credit Guarantee Corporation  which guarantees  the repayment will. at all  reasonable  times,  be  entitled  to  have  physical verification of  the vehicles. without interference with the occupation of the rickshaw pliers.      If group  insurance of rickshaws and of the life of the rickshaw pliers is feasible, the Municipal Commissioner will work out  a scheme  in this  behalf in consultation with the unions in  the field.  Likewise. any  project whereby  cycle rickshaws can  be replaced  by scooters by stages, will also be considered  so that  the rickshaw  pullers of  today  may become scooter  drivers  of  tomorrow  owning  the  vehicles themselves. It  is a  notorious fact  that rickshaw  pullers have  an  occupational  hazard  and  suffer  from  pulmonary tuberculosis and  so, the  State must  be  deeply  concerned progressively to  replace rickshaw  pulling with  mechanical propulsion. It would appear that short of scooters there are mechanised cycle  rickshaws which are fairly inexpensive and which are  being experimented  with. Such  vehicles may be a boot to  the miserable  who now  torture themselves  to keep body and  soul together.  After all,  the quality of life of the weakest  in  society  is  the  true  measure  of  social justice.      The conditions  and directions  we have incorporated in this judgment  shall be  implemented in  its true spirit and import by  the State,  the Municipal Corporation, the Credit Guarantee Corporation,  the nationalised banks and the Union and its members.      We are  happy to record our appreciation of the role of

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counsel and  of the parties in bringing about this solution. The State  by exercising  its legislative power alone, could not produce justice until this formula was hammered out. The Court with  its process of justice alone could not produce a viable  project.  But  now,  justice  and  power  have  come together and,  hopefully. we  have fulfilled  the  words  of Blaise Pascal,           "Justice  without   power  is  inefficient;  power      without justice  is tyranny.  Justice and  power  must,      therefore, be  brought together,  so that  whatever  is      just may  be powerful,  and whatever is powerful may be      just." 372      Until fresh  licences are granted to the cycle-rickshaw pliers under  the scheme  we have  incorporated in the order the present  petitioners will be allowed to ply their cycle- rickshaws.      The writ petitions are disposed of on the above lines.      PATHAK, J.-I agree with the entire scheme of directions framed by my learned brother for the purpose of enabling the rickshaw pliers to acquire and own cycle rickshaws including the financial arrangements envisaged in the scheme, and also the making  of provision  for the repairs and maintenance of the cycle rickshaws. I need add nothing more. N.V.K. 373