[Gentle Giant]

Commendable Waseem, please do let us know if people here, including myself can do anything to help the cause instead of referring to legal terms and what the police is burdened with and why and how. Appreciate your efforts!

[SILVERWOOD]

Dear Friends,

The Writ Petition is filed today at the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir.

The first hearing is tomorrow after lunch.

Jai Hind.

Waseem.....

[SILVERWOOD]

Dear Friends,

WP-2 was heard sometime back in the High Court of Jammu and kashmir and below are the excerpts of the same.

1, Notice is issued to all the respondents.
2, Interim order is issued to get the resolution cancelled (which was passed by the taxi mafia)
3, The state is ordered to take measures to increase security in the valley so that the goons cannot create havoc.
4, Last but not the least, Our Writ Petition is now termed as a PIL and will now be heard by the Chief Justice of the Honourable High Court of Jammu and kashmir.

More details will be available once we get the order in hand after 3-4 days.

Waseem

[Engine_Roars]

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

Dear Friends,

WP-2 was heard sometime back in the High Court of Jammu and kashmir and below are the excerpts of the same.


More details will be available once we get the order in hand after 3-4 days.

Waseem

Way to Go, Sir. Good Luck to your team!!

[mi2n]

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

Dear Friends,

WP-2 was heard sometime back in the High Court of Jammu and kashmir and below are the excerpts of the same.

1, Notice is issued to all the respondents.
2, Interim order is issued to get the resolution cancelled (which was passed by the taxi mafia)
3, The state is ordered to take measures to increase security in the valley so that the goons cannot create havoc.
4, Last but not the least, Our Writ Petition is now termed as a PIL and will now be heard by the Chief Justice of the Honourable High Court of Jammu and kashmir.

More details will be available once we get the order in hand after 3-4 days.

Waseem

Kudos to your team for being able to squeeze out a very substantial part of the relief sought in the interim Order itself, that too, on the very first hearing. A very commendable job indeed. A "Thank you" would really be insufficient here, but still, thanks a lot.

[SILVERWOOD]

Article in Today's Deccan Chronicle (Hyderabad Edition)

Waseem

[abhii176]

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

Dear Friends,

WP-2 was heard sometime back in the High Court of Jammu and kashmir and below are the excerpts of the same.

1, Notice is issued to all the respondents.
2, Interim order is issued to get the resolution cancelled (which was passed by the taxi mafia)
3, The state is ordered to take measures to increase security in the valley so that the goons cannot create havoc.
4, Last but not the least, Our Writ Petition is now termed as a PIL and will now be heard by the Chief Justice of the Honourable High Court of Jammu and kashmir.

More details will be available once we get the order in hand after 3-4 days.

Waseem

All credit to you and your team Waseem for pursuing this and getting this interim order. Wish you all the best for the next hearing in the HC.

[ringoism]

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

Dear Friends, WP-2 was heard sometime back in the High Court of Jammu and kashmir and below are the excerpts of the same.

1, Notice is issued to all the respondents.
2, Interim order is issued to get the resolution cancelled (which was passed by the taxi mafia)
3, The state is ordered to take measures to increase security in the valley so that the goons cannot create havoc.
4, Last but not the least, Our Writ Petition is now termed as a PIL and will now be heard by the Chief Justice of the Honourable High Court of Jammu and kashmir.

This is wonderful news, and goes to show that there is really no place in these modern times for sort of helpless, hands-up, "Well, what to do - we can't do anything about it" types of attitudes, which have reigned for too long among many, and of course are the precise reason that so much corrupt thinking/ antisocial (in this case, even anti-national) behavior gets so deeply entrenched in the first place.

You've done a great service to Indian travelers for sure, but IMO really even for the general population. You are proving that it is WORTH IT to try and effect positive change! That ordinary people's concerns CAN BE heard! That JUSTICE and EQUALITY under the law actually can be achieved - if not all the time, then at least some of the time! Thanks so much for taking this up in what is probably the best/wisest way it could be!

Now that our Marshal is finally running right, I might be so bold as to put Ladakh on our list again for next year - along with many others, I'm sure.

As a side note, spoke today with a local travel operator in Manali who is just back from an all-Indian-tourist Ladakh tour. When told by the "goons" enroute to Pangong that he would have to take a local taxi at the rate of Rs7,000 (he was in a self-drive rental out of UK), he handled it by being both polite and shrewd. Addressed the taxi union fellow he encountered politely as "Achcho" (big brother), told him (not very honestly) that the Bolero self-drive was his sister's car, and then simply reasoned: "See, if I make all my people get into a taxi, what do you get for yourself? Nothing. So why don't we compromise?" Which meant, ultimately, that he slipped the fellow Rs1,000, and he was thereupon allowed to continue towards Pangong with no further hassles. I think what this shows is that the "union" is not quite unified itself. One member of theirs is happy to take Rs1,000 at the Rs7,000 expense of one of his Ladakhi bretheren. That figures. The greed is even internalized.

So I'd suggest that regardless of how some of them are trying to assert their power, they are ultimately going to have to start thinking a little rationally about all this. What they've been doing / trying to do is not good even for themselves, much less anyone else. If the courts / local administrations / police fully cooperate, things should improve.

However, having been through and feeling my neighbors' pain and ire re: the strongly top-down NGT bans here around Manali, I do think it would be good for the powers-that-be to not be too heavy-handed, and to try and generate some open discussion with the taxi union and local population about ways they can adjust and effectively compete in the new self-driven, more informed and diverse tourism environment.

-Eric

[SILVERWOOD]

Interim order from the Honourable High Court of Jammu and kashmir.

Waseem.....

[SILVERWOOD]

Article on the Interim Order.

Waseem

[sachinpk]

Excellent job Waseem. Now let us wait for the state to give it's response. I think they will have to give some sort of a compliance report within a week stating that out-side Leh vehicles are not getting vandalised. And the long term plan (and view), they get some time to prepare a response.

[Lalvaz]

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

Interim order from the Honourable High Court of Jammu and kashmir.

Waseem.....

Good job Waseem, just one question, the interim order states that protection be provided to people proceeding in their private vehicles. Where does that leave people who might be travelling in rental vehicles like Zoomcar?

Is this a loophole to ensure that outside T permit vehicles can be stopped?

[DirtyDan]

Hmmm....I was planning to go to Leh, Nubra, Pangong next week. What advice can someone knowledgable give me as to how to handle "GOONS" , taxi mafia etc.???

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by DirtyDan

Hmmm....I was planning to go to Leh, Nubra, Pangong next week.

During our trip last month, though we were in local taxi, noticed that private vehicles were doing the trips without issues.

As of now, the issue is for non Leh taxi & self drive (golden board) vehicles. However, if the vehicle owner is not traveling then it is an issue. Saw two bikers stopped at the 'Goon checkpost' at Karu due to this.

[SILVERWOOD]

Originally Posted by Lalvaz

Good job Waseem, just one question, the interim order states that protection be provided to people proceeding in their private vehicles. Where does that leave people who might be travelling in rental vehicles like Zoomcar?

Is this a loophole to ensure that outside T permit vehicles can be stopped?

Sir,

This is just an interim order and not a final one.

This order essentially means any one driving their own vehicles ( including self driven rentals).

We will get more clarity on this in the next hearing.

Waseem.....