Public interest litigation has been filed in the Gujarat High Court for the authorities to extend some financial assistance to the auto-rickshaw drivers in the city as their income the only source of their livelihood has been affected severely by the COVID-19 pandemic and the semi lockdown in the state. Jagrut Auto Rickshaw Drivers Union and Ahmedabad Railway Station Auto Rickshaw drivers are the two unions that have filed the public interest litigation through their advocate KR Koshti and are seeking approximately 1 lakh for the auto drivers as financial support from the state government. Their learned advocate Koshti has stated that Sections 12 and 13 of the Disaster Management Act has mandated the authorities to compensate for the livelihood of the people affected during the time of the disasters. He has stated that this Act has to be taken into consideration and assistance should be provided to the auto-rickshaw drivers.

The unions and their advocate have further contended in the public interest litigation that this lockdown that was imposed hat invoked the epidemic disease act and the disaster management act and therefore the government is liable to give financial assistance to all those who have been affected severely by this pandemic. Therefore they stated that because of this lockdown the traffic on the roads had reduced drastically and less and less number of people have preferred to use these means of transportation. Their business has also been severely affected due to the less number of passengers allowed in one auto. They have used the example of states that have given certain fixed amounts to the auto and taxi drivers due to this situation including Andhra Pradesh which had given rupees 10,000 to approximately 2.6 to lakh and also in states of Karnataka and Delhi. This is much required and necessary in every state as daily wage earners, people with already small incomes have been hit so severely that they can't even afford one meal a day.