No bar on operating battery-run rickshaws for now

The Supreme Court's Appellate Division has stayed for a month a High Court (HC) order that ordered the authorities concerned to stop plying battery-run rickshaws on the streets of Dhaka city within three days.

As a result, battery-run rickshaws can operate in the capital for a month. 

The government filed a petition with the concerned wing of the Appellate Division. The chamber judge court of the Appellate Division heard the plea on Monday.

A High Court division bench of Justice Fatema Najib and Justice Sikder Mahmudur Razi on November 19 passed the order after holding a hearing on a writ petition filed in this regard.

The court ordered the Home Secretary, LGRD Secretary, Inspector General of Police, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner and authorities of the two city corporations to execute the order.

The court also issued a rule, asking the authorities concerned to explain why it shall not declare illegal their inaction in stopping the plying of battery-run rickshaws, illegal.

The writ was filed on behalf of an alliance of paddle-run rickshaw owners and was moved by Barrister HM Sanjid Siddiqui and Barrister Tahsina Tasnim Mridu before the court.