No cap on number of cycle rickshaws plying in the capital: SC

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Cycle rickshaws can ply in the national capital without any curb on their number with the Supreme Court on Monday refusing to put any ceiling on it.

A bench headed by Justice G S Singhvi dismissed the plea of the civic body MCD, seeking its direction not to allow more than 99,000 rickshaws to ply on the roads.

The bench upheld the Delhi High Court's order which had said that no ceiling can be fixed as the fundamental right of rickshaw-pullers to earn their livelihood cannot be violated.

The court passed the order on an appeal filed by the MCD challenging the high court's order quashing the civi body's decision of not allowing more than 99,000 rickshaws to operate in the city.

"The right of an individual or citizen to ply cycle rickshaw or other forms of transport falls within the legitimate exercise of his freedom guaranteed under the Fundamental Rights of the Constitution," the high court had said.

"Scientific and rational road management is an everyday challenge faced by municipal and police authorities in view of the expansion of vehicular traffic in metropolises and big cities.

"However, to say that a segment of such vehicles, primarily non-motorised, have to be eliminated altogether or drastically reduced, there has to be something more than a mere assumption," the court had said.