No matter how old your vehicle is, you can still drive it on Indian roads. The vehicle’s age will not be a bar for plying it, said an affidavit filed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in the Supreme Court on Monday.
The Centre’s response came on a PIl, filed by an Agra resident Sanjay Kulshreshtra, wherein a suggestion was put forth as part of traffic reforms to limit plying of vehicles beyond a certain time period.
The suggestion was based on a sound legal footing as Section 59 of Motor Vehicles Act 1988 gave the Centre power to fix an age limit on vehicles after it was registered. The PIl was concerned over the large volume of traffic on roads and the resultant pollution caused by it.
Admitting that the power was available to it under law, the affidavit filed by the Union Transport Ministry said, “Even though, the Central Government is empowered to fix the age limit of vehicles under Section 59 of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, no policy decision fixing age limit of vehicles has been taken by the Central Government.”
Instead, a fitness certificate was required from vehicles on renewal of the Registration Certificate. Citing this power available to it under Section 56 of the Act, the affidavit said, “The vehicle can ply on the Indian roads, as long as it satisfies the prescribed norms and standards mentioned in the Central Motor Vehicles Rules.”
Although fitness certificate is issued for a period of 15 years, the affidavit stated that at the time of renewal of registration certificate (RC), the vehicle owner must obtain fresh fitness certificate from the authorised testing centres. Incidentally, the RC does not come with an expiry date and hence the question of its renewal does not arise.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir took the affidavit on record and allowed the petitioner three weeks to respond to the same. The petitioner maintained that the Government, both at the Centre and states were not taking adequate steps to limit vehicles on roads, which not only resulted in traffic congestion and road accidents but caused high level of pollution in the environment, thus harming the health and well-being of citizens.
The affidavit listed the efforts made by the Ministry to improve the highway network of the country by about 57,000 km over 57 years, ever since the National Highway Act was enacted in 1956. But the petitioner stressed on the need for modernising road infrastructure on which aspect the affidavit was silent.