High Court: No Permit To Mini School Vans
School van operators owning vans with less than 13-seater capacity are in a soup as the Bombay High Court (HC) on Monday urged the state government to review its policy on school vans. The High Court categorically stated that the state government must adopt the safety guidelines for school buses as laid down by Central Government without compromising on the school children’s safety. The High Court decision has created ripples among school van operators with less than 13 seats.
The High Court stated that as per the revision done in 2016 in the Motor Vehicles Act (1989), permits will be issued only to those vans that have a capacity of 13 seats or more. In defence, the state government lawyer Bhushan Samant argued that big school vans are unable to enter small lanes, hence it is necessary to have small vans, too. But the bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and Riyaz Chagla quashed the appeal citing the Central Government rule that defines a school bus as a vehicle that has a capacity of 13+1, but state authorities were flouting the same by allowing mini vans and auto rickshaws to ferry children.
The decision of the High Court has not gone down well among the van operators of less than 13 seats. They are in a fix! An agitated Keshav Joshi, President of North East Mumbai Vidyarthi Vahatuk Sena told Home Times, “It is entirely wrong to decline permit to vans having less than 13 seats. Many parents go to work and the old grandparents are not able to ferry children to schools. Under such circumstances who will ferry the children to school? “Secondly, the livelihood of small van operators is also at stake. Small van operators also abide by all the 23 rules being abided by big school vans. So, what is the problem? Why make a difference between big and small vans?” he demanded.
