State not to insist on original driving licences till Tuesday

Mohamed Imranullah S.

CHENNAI,SEPTEMBER 02, 2017 00:00 IST




Enforcing rule:The licence of motorcyclist being verified near Egmore on Friday.M. VedhanM_VEDHAN 

 
Judge asks government to give up move as licence may get lost

The State government on Friday gave an undertaking before the Madras High Court to defer till Tuesday its instructions to motorists to carry their original driving licences and not just photo copies.

Advocate General Vijay Narayan gave the undertaking to Justice M. Duraiswamy during the hearing of a writ petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Lorry Owners’ Federation.

After recording the undertaking, the judge made it clear that the police officials should not ask for original licences from the motorists till Tuesday. He also directed the registry to tag the writ petition along with activist ‘Traffic’ K.R. Ramaswamy’s public interest litigation petition, on the same issue, pending before a Division Bench of the High Court and list both the cases before the Bench on Monday.

In the meantime, Mr. Justice Duraiswamy asked the AG to prevail upon the government to give up its decision to insist on original driving licences in view of the hardship it would cause to people.

Judge’s poser

When the judge wanted to know what could be done if someone loses his driving licence, the AG said they could make an application and get a duplicate. “Till then, they cannot drive the vehicles, isn’t it?” the judge retorted.

To this, Mr. Narayan said: “The possibility of loss cannot be a reason to permit violation of the law.” He contended that motorists were bound to carry original driving licences as per Section 130 of Motor Vehicles Act of 1988 as well as Rule 139 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules of 1989 though the latter permits for an alternative only during exigencies such as the licence having been confiscated by a court of law.

Preventing accidents

The AG also brought it to the notice of the court that the government had decided to insist on production of original licences only because the State had recorded the second highest number of road accidents in the country.

He said that a Supreme Court-appointed committee on road safety had taken note of the fact that many motorists were driving vehicles merrily with photocopies of either suspended or cancelled driving licences.

However, the judge said the government must tap technology and come up with solutions to find out the validity of driving licences at the touch of a button. “Now there is a mobile app to ascertain registration details of vehicles. Therefore, you can computerise the driving licence details too,” the judge noted. Referring to the insistence on driving licence even for purchasing motor vehicles, the judge wondered whether women would not be allowed to purchase heavy vehicles.

A host of lawyers, who were present in the court room during the hearing of the case, complained to the judge about the policemen having begun to harass motorists since Friday.

‘Vehicle keys snatched’

The writ petitioner’s counsel S. Govindraman alleged that law enforcers were snatching the keys of vehicles.

Advocate M. Purushothaman, representing an impleading petitioner, sought a direction to the State to consider his representation to issue three or more copies of original driving licence.

The possibility of loss cannot be a reason to permit violation of the law

Vijay Narayan

Advocate General