Suppose you have hired a wheeled vehicle drawn by animals in any municipality or cantonment area in India where such transportation is as common as wheeled vehicles (and as all of us are aware that such places are plenty in ‘Incredible India’, not in consideration of our efforts to save the world but necessarily from economic backwardness) and a dispute arises between the you, the hirer, and the driver of the carriage, as to the amount of the fare payable by the hirer under any rule (made under this Act), such dispute shall, upon application made in that behalf by either of the disputing parties, be heard and determined by any Magistrate or Bench of Magistrates within the local limits of whose jurisdiction such dispute has arisen; and such Magistrate or Bench may, besides determining the amount so in dispute, direct payment together with such sum as compensation for loss of time as such Magistrate or Bench thinks fit

Any sum determined to be due or directed to be paid under this section is recoverable as if it were a fine. {As to recovery of fines, see the General Clauses Act}

The decision of any Magistrate or Bench in any such case shall be final.

When any such case is heard by a Bench, any difference of opinion arising between the members of such Bench shall be settled in the same manner as differences of opinion arising between such members in the trial of criminal cases.

If, at the time any dispute mentioned arises, any Magistrate or Bench of Magistrates having jurisdiction in respect of such dispute is sitting within the local limits to which the rules apply, the hirer of the carriage may require the driver thereof to take him in the same to the Court of such Magistrate or Bench for the purpose of making an application under that section.

Any driver neglecting or refusing to comply with such requisition shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one month, or with fine not exceeding fifty rupees, or with both.

Guessing which is such a well worded legislation?

            The legislation is called THE HACKNEY-CARRIAGE ACT, 1879

Since such disputes are not confined to hackney carriages, wondering whether we have similar dispute resolution laws for city transportations in wheeled vehicles sans animals.

In 2005, the Delhi Police launched a sms based complaint system against auto rickshaws In order to enlarge the reach of the commuters to  lodge complaints against auto rickshaw drivers, whereby any person having complaint against Auto drivers for (i) refusal (ii) overcharging, (iii) misbehavior and (iv) harassment could lodge a complaint through SMS on phone number 6767. For the complaint of refusal, one has to write "REF" followed by registration number of TSR followed by Location and time and SMS to 6767. Similarly, for over-charging the letters "OVC” has to be used, for misbehavior "MIB" and for harassment "HAR".

Delhi Traffic Police claims it has been taking action on these complaints against auto rickshaw drivers by spot prosecution (ii) by sending decoys (iii) by ascertaining the facts from commuters.  But one isn’t sure under which law and under which procedure such a ‘spot prosecution’ is being conducted. Are the auto-drivers deemed guilty till proved otherwise? What is the nature of such ‘spot prosecution’?

Any info on the same would be useful.