Hackney-carriage Act, 1879

This is a colonial-era law from 1879 regulating hackney-carriages — horse-drawn, wheeled vehicles kept or offered for hire to carry passengers — within certain municipalities and cantonments. Section 3 lets the Provincial Government apply the Act to specific municipalities, after which the local municipal committee can make rules regulating and controlling hackney-carriages there, subject to confirmation and publication by the Commissioner, who can also rescind any such rule.

Section 6 lists what these local rules could cover: requiring licences for both carriages and their drivers, setting licence fees and conditions, regulating the animals, harness and equipment used, requiring inspection of premises where carriages are kept, fixing licence duration and grounds for revocation, numbering carriages, designating carriage stands, capping fares by time or distance and setting minimum driving speeds, limiting passengers and cargo weight, requiring a posted fare list in English and another prescribed language, requiring drivers to wear a numbered badge, and handling property left behind in a carriage.

Section 7 punishes breaking any rule made under the Act with a fine up to fifty rupees. Sections 9 and 10 give a Magistrate power to resolve fare disputes between a hirer and a carriage owner or driver, including ordering compensation for lost time; a hirer can require the driver to take them straight to the Magistrate's court to raise such a dispute, and a driver who refuses can be imprisoned up to one month or fined up to fifty rupees.

This Act is now almost 150 years old, applies only where a Provincial Government has specifically extended it, and has already been repealed for Islamabad Capital Territory (by a 1981 Ordinance). Its subject matter — regulating horse-drawn carriages — makes it largely of historical interest today, and its fine amounts are clearly outdated.