Social Rights | ECESR Wins Lawsuit for Drivers of White Taxis, Compelling MOI to Renew Registrations without Bank Notice of Paying Instalments
Judgment is a great win for many drivers participating in the white taxi replacement project that started in 2009, amounting to about 40,000 drivers in Greater Cairo
On 7 April 2015, the third circuit (individuals) of the State Council’s Administrative Court decided to compel the Ministry of Interior (MoI) and traffic departments to renew registrations of white taxis without requiring drivers and owners to present notice from the lending bank to prove paying outstanding bank instalments regularly.
The decision wins the challenge [1] submitted by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) on behalf of 123 drivers demanding to compel the MoI and traffic departments to renew the registration of white taxis participating in the national project to replace taxis without requiring notice from the lending bank approve of renewal.
Challenge background
Drivers of white taxis filed the lawsuit when the traffic department of MoI required them to bring a letter from the lending bank to prove they are paying instalments regularly as a requirement for registration renewal. Because of the decision, the defaulters were not able to renew their registrations and this put the drivers and owners under pressure to provide the living expenses of their families. In addition, they cannot drive the taxis without registration, which means their debts will accumulate and their unpaid instalments will increase. On the other hand, if they drove the cars with expired registrations they will risk being subjected to fines or car seizure.
The traffic law number 155 did not require a letter from the bank for which the ban on selling the car is issued. The law required specifications the car must meet to be registered, and that it is owned by the individual requesting the registration. All drivers and owners met all these requirements, which means traffic departments are not liable to abstain from renewing their car registrations. Even though it is customary in traffic departments to suspend registration renewals until the owner pays outstanding instalments to the selling entity, the motive to do that is to protect public funds. Since this motive is satisfied due to the various collaterals national banks required, such as a ban on selling cars and ban on ownership transfer unless the bank agrees, then refusing to renew registrations is rendered useless.
Second challenge
It is worth mentioning that the lawsuit is at the State Council since December 2014. The decision issued today for the drivers is a win for many drivers participating in the white taxi replacement project that started in 2009, amounting to around 40,000 drivers in Greater Cairo. They faced many issues because of manipulations in estimating the value of their old cars or the prices of the new ones that were overpriced to the advantage of Egyptian car assembly companies and lending banks. This issue is the subject of the second challenge [2] ECESR submitted on behalf of owners of white taxis. The challenge is demanding the cancellation of the negative decision to abstain from forming a technical, financial and legal committee to handle re-evaluating the prices of new cars (the white taxis) delivered to the drivers to replace their old cars.
The evaluation should illustrate the real price of the new car as sold in the Egyptian market to normal consumers, and explain the financial value of the advantages and subsidies the state offers to those participating in the project as reflected in re-evaluating the prices of new cars according to the evaluation.
[1] Challenge number 2931 of judicial year 69 [2] Challenge number 27071 of judicial year 68