Holding

The Punjab Cycle Rickshaws (Regulation of Rickshaws) Act, 1976 is constitutionally valid, and the Court framed a scheme to give effect to its purpose.

Summary

The Azad Rickshaw Pullers Union and other petitioners challenged the Punjab Cycle Rickshaws (Regulation of Rickshaws) Act, 1976, alleging it violated their fundamental rights under Articles 32 and 38 of the Constitution. The Act prohibited owners of cycle rickshaws from obtaining licences unless they themselves were the pullers, and mandated a ban on existing licences not conforming to the new provisions. The Supreme Court held that the Act was constitutionally valid and, rather than striking it down, framed a detailed implementation scheme to ensure the pullers could obtain certificates, access interest‑free loans through the Credit Guarantee Corporation of India, and obtain licences during agricultural seasons. The scheme also provided for vehicle hypothecation, repayment terms, and provisions for repair workshops and future mechanisation. The Court emphasized its role as a refuge for the weaker sections and the need to translate legislative intent into effective social justice. Accordingly, the writ petitions were disposed of, with the Court’s directions to be implemented by the State, municipal authorities, banks, and the Credit Guarantee Corporation.

Issues considered

Whether the Punjab Cycle Rickshaws (Regulation of Rickshaws) Act, 1976 violates fundamental rights under Articles 32 and 38 of the Constitution.
Whether the blanket ban on licences for rickshaw owners, without supportive measures, is unconstitutional.
Whether the Act's provisions are arbitrary or discriminatory against rickshaw pullers.

Legislation cited

Constitution of Indias. Article 32, s. Article 38
Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (Small Loans) Guarantee Scheme, 1971
Punjab Cycle Rickshaws (Regulation of Rickshaws) Act, 1976s. 3
Punjab Municipal Act, 1911

Subjects

constitutional lawfundamental rightsArticle 32Article 38labour lawrickshaw pullerslicensing schemejudicial activismsocial justicePunjab Act

Judgment

366
A
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AZAD RICKSHAW PULLERS UNION (REGD.) CH. TOWN HALL.
AMRITSAR & ORS. ETC.
v.
STATE OF PUNJAB & OTHERS
Augu$1 5, 1980
[V. R. KRISHNA IYER, R. s. PATHAK & o. CHINNAPPA REDDY, JJ.]
Constitution of India 1950, Articles 32 and 38 & The Punjab Cycle Rickshaws
c (Regulation of Rickshaws) Act, 1976-Court fra1;ning scheme for cycle rickshaw
drivers.
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.
D HELD : (Per Krishna Iyer & Chinnappa Reddy, JJ. Pathak J. agreeing
with the scheme of directions framed).
A: The Court framed the following sc.heme :
(a) Every rickshaw puller including every petitioner, who has beer{ a
licensee within one year of the coming into force of the Act shall
be entitled to apply to, the Municipal Commissioner for a ~erti
E ficate or other document to the effect that he has been a licensee
for rickshaw pulling. [369 Fl
(b) The Municipal Commissioner will verify the records and will .;irant ~
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
F the Guarantee Scheme of 1971 for advance of a loan upto Rs. 900.
[369 H-370 Al
(d) The loan amount shall be repaid by the rickshaw puller in 15
monthly instalments. If there are delayed payments of instalments
of Joan, higher rate of interest will be recoverable. [370 FJ
(e) When the rickshaw pullers during the agricultural season go to
G work in their 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 Al
B. (1) Under the Constitutional system courts are· havens of refuge
for the toiler, not the exploiter, for the weaker claimant of social
H
justice, not the stronger pretender who seeks to sustain the status
quo ante by judicial wri~ in the name of fundamental rights.
[367 El
AZAD RICKSHAW PULLERS UNION v. PUNJAB (Krishna Iyer, J.) 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 pre~mbular promise of social j~stice reiterated in Artfcle 38 '.
of the Constitution. [F] '
(3) The success of well-meant statutory schemes depends on the sym- :
·- biosis of legislative embargo on exploitative working conditions ·
and viable facilities or acceptable alternatives whereby shackles are
shaken off and self-ownership substitJted. Judicial engineering to-. B·
wards this goal is better social justice than, dehumanised adjudica-
tion on the vires of legislation. [ll-368 A] ·

·ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition Nos. 839 and 563 /79.
(Under Article 32 of the Constitution)
c,
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 /
19.
0. P. Sharma and R. C. Bhatia for the RR. No. 1 in WP Nos. 839 D
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 E
us to remind ourselves that under our constitutional system courts
:are havens of refuge for _the toiler, not the exploiter, for the weaker
daimant of social justice, not the stronger pretender who seeks to
\'lustain the status quo ante by judicial writ in the name of fundamental

t- right. No higher duty or more solemn responsibility rests upon this
court than to uphold eve!)'. 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
F

'€rom this angle of constitutionalised humanism, the vires cf the Punjab
Cycle Rickshaws (Regulation of Rickshaws) Act, 1976 (Punjab Act
41 of 1975) (the Act for short), desi~ed to deliver the tragic tribe
0f rickshaw pullers, whose lot is sweat, toil, blood and teats, from the G
exploitative clutches of cycle rickshaw owners by a statutory ban on
i1on-owner rickshaw drivers. But negative bans, without supportive
schemes, can be a remedy aggravating the malady. For, the hungry
"human animal, euphemistically called rickshaw puller, loses, iµ 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 ~H

legislative embargo on exploitative working conditions and viable faci-
lities or acceptable alternatives ·whereby shackles are shaken off and
368 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [I98fl 1 S;C.R..
J
self-ownership substituted. Judicial engineering towards this goal is
better social justice than dehumanised adjudication on the vires of I!

legislation. Court and counsel agreed on this constructive approach
and strove through several adjournments, to mould a scheme of acqui-
sition of cycle rickshaws by licensed rickshaw pullers without financial
hurdles, suretyship problems and, more than all, that heartless enemy,
B at the implementational level of all progressive projects best left un-
mentioned. Several adjournments, several formulae and several modi-
fications resulted in reaching a hopefully workable proposal. In fair-
ness to the State, we must mention that when the impugned legislation
was enacted Government had such a supportive financial arrangement
c and many rickshaw-pullers had been baled out of their economic bon-
dage. 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.
D
These ·prefatory observations explain why a pronouncemrnt on
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 termsi 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 State
E
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
F benign as is manifest from the Statement of Objects and Reason&
which runs th.?s :
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 pullerir
G 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 :
H 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, n0:
;:; ,4, . ,:; ·~·'-~}-:1:,-1:-·~"-->-i*':: ::E~J::~;;:<J-•:'i

'

AZAD RICKSHAW PULLERS UNION v. PUNJAB (Krishna Iyer, J.) 369

owner of a cycle rickshaw shall be granted any licence in respect A
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,
B
. on the expiry of a period of thirty days after such commencement ·
if it does not conform to Jhe provisions of this Act.
The State was alive to the need for positive rescue measures be·
yond 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 c
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 D
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 E
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 F
· 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 G
the necessary certificate or other document within one month from
the date of application. He shall not delay the issuance of the certi·
ficate. 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 H
· heartless legalism and this very case is, to some extent, an illustration).
On receipt of the municipal certificate, the rickshaw puller concern.:d
: *'

370 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1981) l S.C.R.

A 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 ~fa cycle rickshaw is more than Rs. 900). The Punjab National
Bank (or other scheduled bank mutually chosen) will receive !Ii sum
of Rs. 50 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
I, 'c 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 taki~g
'D such delivery, and thereafter whenever directed. He will also sign the
·necessary forms and undertakings required by the bank so as to hypo-
thecate the cycle rickshaw in favour of the bank. So far as the pay-
ment of interest to the bank is cbncerned, both sides agree that it will
be governed by the Scheine for advance to the cycle rickshaw pullers
'E
framed by the State Government. The bank shall advance 95% by
way of loan towards the purchase of the cycle rickshaw. The 1mm
1

of Rs. ~O. 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 I/ 15th of the
amount is cleared). If there are delayed payments of instalmenti 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 ai an
· act of relief for the rickshaw pliers. The rickshaw pliers shall, on
purchase, hypothecate the vehicles to the bank which advances the loan
G and this will be an undertaking to the court.
The petitioner union will be p~rmitted 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 f~r rickshaw stands and safe keeping.· of rickshaws'
within the limitations of availability and subject to moderate charges.
'H
A realistic understanding of the life-style of rickshaw pliers in
' Amdtsar indicates that during the agricultural season many of them

,.
AZAD RICKSHA\11 PULLERS UNION, v. :PUNJAB (Krishna Iyer, J.) 37:1

go to work 11ominating other rickshaw· pliers ·without ~employment to ~
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 G_uarantee .B
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 ri~kshaw pliers.

If group insurance of rickshaws and of the life of the rickshaw
pliers is feasible, the Municipal Commissioner will 'work out a sclieme c
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 them-
selves. It is a notorious fact that rickshaw pullers have an occupational D
hazard and suffer from pulmonary tuberculosis and i;o, the &tate must
be deeply concerned progressively to replace rickshaw pulling with
mechanical propulsion. It would appear that i;hort of i;cooters 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. E
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 judg-
ment shall be implemented in its true spirit and import by the State,
the Municipal Corporation, the Credit Guarantee Corporation, the F
nationalised banks and the Union and its members.

We are happy to record our appreciation of the role of counsel
and of the parties in bringing about this solution. The State by exer-
cising its legislative power alone, could not produce justice until this
'G
formula was hammered out. The Court with its process of justice alorie
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, H
so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful
may be just."
-~·

372 SUPREME COURT REPORTS ll981l 1 S.C.R.

A Until fresh licences are granted to the cycle-rickshaw pliers under
the scheme we have incorporated in the order .the present petitioner~
will be allowed to ply their cycle-rickshaws .
.The writ petitions are disposed of on the above lines.
PATHAK, J.-1 agree with the entire scheme of directions framed
B 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.

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