A bench led by Justice LN Rao sought response from the ministry of transport and the Delhi government on a plea filed by Bajaj Auto, which claims to be the world’s largest manufacturer of three-wheelers and enjoys a market share of about 68 per cent in the segment in India, against the Delhi government’s decision to allot and issue 4,261 new TSR permits exclusively to electric autorickshaws (e-autos) by inviting online applications to the exclusion of other clean technologies including CNG.
While seeking quashing of the advertisement and the application process, the automobile manufacturer argued that the Delhi government’s decision is arbitrary and discriminatory to manufacturers of existing clean fuel/CNG TSRs. It wants a direction to the AAP government that “no permits be issued to e-autos without equally considering CNG autos and affording interested applicant drivers the chance to choose their desired technology”.
Auto manufacturers complained that autos running on CNG and BS-VI fuel are being discriminated against by the denial of permit and “the Delhi government cannot unilaterally assign these to a new technology, to the detriment of CNG auto manufacturers”.
While the government may have the prerogative to give an impetus or select benefits to any technology (as a matter of executive policy), such impetus cannot come at the cost of totally shutting out other legally compliant existing technologies, ie, CNG, Bajaj said in its application. “CNG is a clean technology, and has been introduced with respect to TSRs and buses plying in Delhi in furtherance of the SC orders. As such, suddenly excluding such technology overnight, by diverting all existing available permits for new TSRs to electric autos only, is irrational and arbitrary,” it said, adding that the Delhi government’s decision “tantamount to an indirect ban on new CNG TSRs, and also tantamount to restricting market opportunities to one class of vehicles over another, without rational basis or intelligible differentia (inasmuch as CNG has not been shown to have any environmentally worse profile than e-autos)”.
The company further said that the AAP government had already extended several benefits and subsidies as incentives to e-autos, including FAME subsidy, state subsidies, lower GST rates, waivers/rebates in registration fees etc, which are intended to impact the collection to the exchequer by about Rs 1.5 lakh per new e-auto.
