MUMBAI: Four app-based cab drivers have filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court, challenging the Maharashtra transport department’s notification dated August 12, 2026, mandating a “working knowledge of Marathi language” for autorickshaw, taxi and app-based cab drivers. Non-compliance will lead to suspension and eventually to the cancellation of their permits or badges, according to the notification.
Seeking an immediate stay on the notification, the PIL clarifies that the drivers do not oppose the promotion of Marathi. It states that about 965,000 permit and badge holders in Maharashtra face notices, suspension and permanent revocation of badges and permits.
The petitioners also underlined that the enforcement is “targeted at migrant drivers” as more than 70% of about 200,000 autorickshaw drivers in Mumbai come from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, while the government has now directed the verification of their domicile certificates and police inquiries into whether they have actually resided in Maharashtra for 15 years. Citizens of India who move to Maharashtra to earn their bread are being treated as outsiders in their own country, they said. However, it said, “love for a language cannot be enforced by snatching away the licence and the livelihood of the poorest workers”.
“For a daily earner, even a single day without the badge means hunger for his family. The injury is immediate, continuing and irreparable, and it falls on the poorest section of society. Because lakhs of autos and taxis going off the road will cripple public transport in Mumbai and in the state,” the plea added, the public at large also suffers,.
Advocate Shukla said he will mention the PIL for urgent hearing before a bench of acting chief justice Ravindra Ghuge and justice Gautam Ankhad this week.
