Apex Court Directs States To Implement Electronic Monitoring And Enforcement Of Road Safety Under Section 136A Of MV Act
The Supreme Court has directed the States and the Union Territories to immediately take steps to implement the provisions of Section 136A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (“the 1988 Act”) which deals with Electronic monitoring and enforcement of road safety.
The Bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih directed, “We, therefore, direct that the Governments of all the Union Territories as well as the States shall immediately take steps to implement the provisions of Section 136A of the 1988 Act in terms of Rule 167A of the 1989 Rules which we have quoted above. After making the choice of electronic enforcement devices to be used for issuance of challans, the Governments of the Union Territories and the States shall ensure that compliance is made with sub-Rule (3) of Rule 167A of the 1989 Rules by issuing challans on the basis of the footage from the electronic enforcement device. Compliance will have to be made with other sub-Rules of Rule 167A including Rule 4(a).”
AOR Krishna Kumar appeared for the Petitioner whereas ASG Vikramjit Banerjee, Senior AAG Amit Anand Tiwari and Advocate Kishan Chand Jain appeared for the Respondents. Senior Advocate Gaurav Agrawal is the Amicus Curiae.
The main issue was regarding the implementation of Section 136A of the 1988 Act which was brought in the statute book with effect from April 1, 2021. According to the Court, Section 136A of the 1988 Act is a very innovative provision which will help all the State Governments in ensuring that road discipline is maintained and the provisions of the 1988 Act and the Rules framed thereunder are scrupulously followed.
The Court observed that if Section 136A is implemented, the State machinery will easily get the data and information of the vehicles and individuals which are offending the provisions of the 1988 Act and the Rules framed thereunder so that those who are violating the provisions can be prosecuted.
“Today, violators can be hauled up only if the violations are noticed by the Police. Road discipline and implementation of the 1988 Act and the Rules framed thereunder have direct nexus with road safety”, it said.
Recently, Rule 167A was incorporated in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 (“the 1989 Rules”) by virtue of Central Motor Vehicles (Seventeenth Amendment) Rules, 2021 and notified 132 cities. The Court referred to the Rules and noted that a concept paper was prepared on the modalities of the implementation of nationwide rollout of an effective enforcement under Section 136A of the 1988 Act.
But it said, “If at all, we wait till all the recommendations made in the concept paper are implemented, the provisions of Section 136A of the 1988 Act and Rule 167A of the 1989 Rules will not be implemented for few more years. For a period of three years or more, the provision of Section 136A has remained only on paper.”
The Court also noted that the devices must be used only for the purposes of sub-Rule (3) and not for keeping individuals under surveillance. It further directed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to forward copies of the order to all concerned Governments of the Union Territories and the States to enable them to act upon it.
Furthermore, the Court directed the State Governments of Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, to report to the Court the steps taken to implement Section 136A of the 1988 Act read with Rule 167A of the 1989 Rules. The reports were directed to be submitted by the State Governments to the Amicus Curiae by December 6, 2024.
Recently, on August 20, 2024, the Court had stated that it would consider issuing directives for the cashless treatment of road accident victims and the online transfer of compensation to them, as part of an ongoing public interest litigation (PIL) aimed at improving road safety and accident response.
Previously, in January, 2024, the Court had issued directions to ensure that the victims and their legal representatives in hit and run accident cases are informed about the availability of the compensation scheme and that they are assisted in filing the claims. It had pointed out that Police in a hit-and-run accident must inform the victim or their legal representatives about the availability of the compensation scheme under Section 161 of the Motor Vehicles Act. It had also directed the Central Government to assess whether the amount of compensation under Section 161 of the Act, which currently stands at Rs. 2 lakhs for death and Rs. 50 thousand for grievous injury resulting from hit-and-run accidents, should be progressively increased annually since the value of money diminishes over time.
The Apex Court had earlier mandated the formation of a steering committee to address various aspects of road safety, including the enforcement of Section 136A of the Motor Vehicles Act, which deals with the electronic monitoring and enforcement of road safety regulations.
The Chhattisgarh High Court had also taken a suo moto cognizance of the alarming condition of traffic on the streets/roads and the State and National Highways in Chhattisgarh. The suo-moto Public Interest Litigation was registered based on news items published in Dainik Bhaskar, Bilaspur Bhaskar and Nav Bharat.
The Himachal High Court had also, after taking suo moto cognizance, issued directions to the Director General of Police(Transport) and other authorities, to ensure that no transport vehicle shall have a high-power audio system, multiple booster/power amplifiers, speakers and sub-woofers producing loud noise, DJ rotating LED lights, continuously blinking multi-coloured LED lights, laser lights, etc.
Accordingly, the Court said that it would consider the reports on December 13, 2024, and issue further directions to the States.
Cause Title: S Rajaseekaran v. Union of India and Ors.
Appearances:
Amicus Curiae: Senior Advocate Gaurav Agrawal with AOR Ravi Raghunath and Advocate Manan Daga
Petitioner: AOR Krishna Kumar and Advocate Vinodh Kanna B
Respondent: ASG Vikramjit Banerjee, Senior AAG Amit Anand Tiwari, Advocate Kishan Chand Jain, AORs Gurmeet Singh Makker, E.C. Agrawala, Viresh B Saharya, Azmat Hayat Amanullah, Prerna Mehta, K Enatoli Sema, Rashmi Nandakumar, Aravindh S, DK Devesh and Others.
