AZAD RICKSHAW PULLERS UNION (REGD.) CH. TOWN HALL AMRITSAR & ORS. ETC. versus STATE OF PUNJAB & OTHERS

Citation: [1981] 1 S.C.R. 366 · Decided: 05-08-1980 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: V.R. KRISHNA IYER · Disposal: Disposed off
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Judgment (excerpt)

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\ 
c 
366 
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 
(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 
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H 
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
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 
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 
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 
justice, not the stronger pretender who seeks to sustain the status 
quo ante by judicial wri~ in the name 
of fundamental 
rights. 
[367 El 
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AZAD RICKSHAW PULLERS UNION v. PUNJAB (Krishna Iyer, J.) 
367 
(2) No higher duty or more solemn responsibility rests upon this Court . 
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-. 
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) 
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. 
A,, 
B· 
c, 
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 
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 
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 
'€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 
exploitative clutches of cycle rickshaw owners by a
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