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A deadline of 15 August was set, with Marathi classes also organised for drivers. The BJP-led Maharashtra government announced in April that drivers who did not speak Marathi would have to learn the basics of the language.
Transport minister Pratap Sarnaik had said drivers who failed the Marathi test would be given one month to acquire working knowledge of the language. The move means immediate action against non-Marathi-speaking drivers will be put on hold, giving them more time to learn the language. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the extension after a delegation of drivers met him on Thursday.
The public interest litigation (PIL), filed through advocate Vivek Shukla, challenged a government notification issued on 12 August, arguing that it violated citizens’ fundamental rights.
“The Motor Vehicles Act confers no power upon the State Government to prescribe working knowledge of any language as a qualification for a driver, as a condition of a badge, or as a condition of a permit, and confers no power to suspend or revoke a badge on such a ground,” the plea had said. MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has disposed of a petition challenging Maharashtra’s Marathi language requirement for auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers after the state government extended the deadline for learning the language by a year. The court accepted the government’s statement and disposed of the petition.
Additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan told a bench comprising acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad on Saturday that the government had decided to give drivers an additional year to acquire working knowledge of Marathi.