Nishka Srinivas Veluvali
Published On: January 13, 2022 at 20:30 IST
The Bombay High Court at Goa has extended the deadline for complying with the orders of installing Digital Taxi Meter and has Ordered the State to file the status report on March 14.
Advocate General Devidas Panagam informed the Court that there are total of 12,000 operational taxis out of which only 3,000 are pending with the installation of the digital meters and added that this count was actually considerable number.
Putting forth the fourth status report of the Transport Department he stated that as on the current month 10,8,792 taxis have completed with the installation process as compared to the 7,726 taxis as on December 11, 2021.
He also informed the Court that the Enforcement Agencies have already taken action by issuing challans against the 171 taxis which are without meters. He has also added that even though the Taxi drivers have taken bookings the affixation of meters is still pending.
To endorse the point of Advocate General Panagam, Counsel Gaurang Panandikar appearing for Tourism and Travel Association of Goa asserted that the installation process has been slowed down in the past few weeks which might be because of the rise in tourists and holiday season.
Considering both the submissions the Division Bench of Justice Sadhana Jadhav and Manish Pitale stated that, “Considering the number of taxis plying in the State, it appears that some further time would be required to ensure full compliance with the direction of this Court”.
The Court has reserved this Case in March for further inspection.
Prior to this the High Court had quashed several Petitions of Taxi Associations seeking exemption from the installation of the Digital Taxi Meters.
The Court’s Orders for frequent submission of status report has lead to the meeting of transport department with the two agencies that does the installing of meters that is Rosmerta Auto Tech Pvt Ltd and Securinex Pvt Ltd to speed their work of installation of the meters.