Next time a groom wants to sit on a chariot in his baraat (wedding procession), he would be disappointed.

Two days after Bombay High Court declared that horse-drawn carriages were illegal and set a deadline of June 2016 to phase them out from Mumbai, animal advocacy groups like People For Animal (PFA) are gearing up to take up the cause in Patna.

Gauri Maulekhi, a PFA trustee and adviser to Maneka Gandhi, Union minister for women and child development, told The Telegraph on Wednesday morning that PFA would move Patna High Court to stop chariot-ride in marriages as well as phaetons and tongas in Bihar too.

"We were intervener in the case in which Bombay High Court has asked to stop running all horse-drawn chariots. We are thrilled about this verdict and we now want to take up this cause in other parts of the country as well. Accordingly, we would first pursue the matter with the state government to take steps for banning horse-drawn chariots. If our requests are not given due consideration, we would move Patna High Court as well," said Maulekhi.

The verdict on banning horse-driven carriages/victorias chariots in Mumbai on Monday was given by a division bench of Justice A.S. Oka and Justice A.K. Menon in a public interest litigation filed by the Animal and Birds Charitable Trust (ABCT) in 2011.

Around 100 buggies, similar to Victoria chariots, are run in Patna and neighbouring places, mostly for wedding purposes. The cost of each buggy is around Rs 1.3-1.5 lakh and these are mostly made in Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh).

The buggy owners charge anything between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 per wedding for taking the groom in the baraats. Another 250 tongas (horse-drawn carts) are running in the city, mostly for transporting food crops, vegetables and other agriculture products. Apart from Patna, several hundred buggies and tongas run in Rajgir as well.

For many chariot runners, this is the only work they have ever done. "We would be left jobless if the government imposes ban on horse-drawn chariots. If some people claim that we keep horses in cruel manner then it is false. I spend around Rs 200 per day on a horse and same is the case with other chariot owners as well. If at all the government does not want horse chariots, then it should provide alternative employment opportunities for us," said Vindeshwar Yadav, a buggy owner based in Patna.

The Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC) also runs two victoria-type English tourist chariots in Patna and another two at Rajgir. The corporation had bought the four chariots each costing Rs 1.75 lakh from a Patiala-based firm in October 2011 of which two were running in Patna and remaining four were sent to Ghorakatora Lake in Rajgir.

In Patna, the carriages used to run daily between Old Secretariat and Raj Bhavan in the evening. However, these chariots are not running for the past few months, as BSTDC is not able to get an operator for the same. The two chariots are lying at the headquarters of the BSTDC at Hotel Kautilya Vihar.