A Public Interest litigation (PIl) has been filed in the Supreme Court, seeking issuance of directions for implementation of Speed Governors for all the transport vehicles.
The petition filed by Suraksha Foundation, a Non -Governmental Organisation (NGO) has demanded issuance of necessary directions to all the States to issue tenders for the selection of sellers of Speed Governors and also sought withdrawal of exemption granted to any transport vehicles.
The NGO has also raised concerns that even after the notification from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway, the 28 States and the seven Union Territories have failed to make the Speed Governors mandatory for vehicles.
Expressing concern over the inreasing number of road accidents all over the country, the petition said despite the Supreme Court’s 1997 ruling that no heavy and medium transport vehicle, and light goods vehicle (four-wheeler) would be permitted to operate on the roads of the National Capital Region (NCT) and National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, unless they are fitted with suitable speed control devices to ensure that they do not exceed the speed limit of 40 KMPH, no action has been taken by the Delhi Government so far.
The petition also alleges that MORTH’s (Ministry of Road Transport and Highway) connivance with transporter’s lobby is the reason why no process has been put in place, and that no action has been taken. Therefore, the Supreme Court should take immediate action in order to make installation of electronic speed limiters/speed governors mandatory for all transport vehicles, it said.
However, none of the States took any action except the Government of Karnataka which issued a notification on August 11 specifying that all commercial transport vehicles have to be fitted with speed governors and also called for a request for registration of qualified vendors, it claimed.
As per the petition, Suraksha Foundation has demanded for the following directions to be implemented:
I) Issuance of directions to remove exemption granted to transport vehicles of M1 category (seating capacity of 8 passengers in addition to the driver seat) and all four wheeled lgvs (large goods vehicles) above 1,000 kgs, gross vehicle weight, and below 3,500 kgs gross vehicle weight in the impugned notification dated 15.04.2015 on provisions of Rule 118 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989.
ii) Issuance of directions to all the States to issue tenders for the selection of vendors of Speed Governors and for installation thereof in terms of the guidelines laid by the Supreme Court, and to submit a status report of the stage of implementation of the said rules.
iii) Issuance of directions to seal the Speed Governors with the official seal of the State’s transport authority or a regional transport authority, along with the requirement of embossment of the registration number of the Speed Governor by inserting a provision in the present Rule 118 of the Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, or issue separate guidelines, providing for a selection criteria and tender process for the approval and appointment of authorised manufacturers of Speed Governors by the respective the State Governments.
iv) Issuance of directions for laying down exhaustive guidelines for the implementation of the rule 118 of the M.V. Rules 1989 in its letter and spirit and also monitor the implementation of the said rule and the guidelines
The NGO also referred to an analysis report by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway revealing some severe facts which stated that during the year 2014, more than 4 lakh road accidents took place and the same situation was witnessed in the year 2013. The total number of persons killed also increased by about 1.5 per cent from 1,37,572 in 2013 to 1,39,671 in 2014. The analysis also reveals that about 56 accidents take place and 16 lives are lost each hour on an average.
‘Exceeding lawful speed’ has been blamed as the root cause behind the high share of 56.2 per cent (57,844 out of 1,02,878 deaths) of accidents last year.
The report also states that vehicles categorised as “Cars, Jeeps, Taxis” accounted for 1,11,218 accidents in 2014, whereas the categories of “buses” result in around 40,000 accidents and “trucks, tempos, MAVs, Tractors” together accounted for 96,215 accidents.