The Bombay high court on Thursday reprimanded the state government for failing to comply with a court order that required RTOs to conduct the mandatory test required under the Motor Vehicles Act to is
The Bombay high court on Thursday reprimanded the state government for failing to comply with a court order that required RTOs to conduct the mandatory test required under the Motor Vehicles Act to issue fitness certificates to four-wheelers.
The government on Thursday informed the division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Amjad Sayed that owing to some practical difficulties, the government could not comply with the court order and fully equip the RTOs to conduct tests for issuing fitness certificates.
The biggest challenge for government is to provide 400-m road track for testing. Under the Motor Vehicles Act, it is mandatory for the RTOs to have a 400-m road track for testing. The vehicles are made to run at a speed of 40km per hour and asked to apply brakes. By doing this, the authorities can determine at what distance the vehicles would stop once a sudden brake is applied. Owing to non-availability of such long tracks, the court in 2014 had banned four RTOs in the state from issuing fitness certificates to vehicles but later that ban was lifted.
Coming down heavily on the government, the bench said if the government cannot equip RTOs to conduct fitness test of vehicles and certificates are issued without appropriate tests, then the government should shut down its RTOs. The bench has directed the government to file a compliance report of the court order by August 16.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by activist Srikant Karve seeking a direction to RTOs to follow the Motor Vehicles Act.
Mr Karve alleged an average 70 vehicles are cleared everyday by each RTO in the state after issuing the fitness certificates and this would be impossible if the mandatory checks are actually being carried out.
