Hearing a PIL, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court today issued notices to the Centre and the state authorities over the issue of teenagers riding motorbikes in violation of the law and causing accidents.
Close to 12 lakh two-wheelers ply on the city roads, according to an estimate. In 2014, 5,046 two-wheeler riders lost their lives in accidents in Maharashtra, the PIL says.
A division bench of Justices Bhushan Gavai and P N Deshmukh sought replies in three weeks from the Union Transport Ministry, State Transport department, Transport Commissioner, RTO, Nagpur Municipal Corporation, and the Education Secretary.
The PIL is an offshoot of a petition filed by parents of a 15-year-old boy who, driving a two-wheeler, knocked down a woman who suffered a serious head injury.
The petition sought quashing of the charge sheet. The court separated the larger issue of teen-agers driving illegally and recklessly and asked advocate Shreerang Bhandarkar to file a PIL acting as an amicus curiae (court's friend).
Bhandarkar has pointed out that transport authorities are blatantly violating Motor Vehicles Act in issuing permanent licenses to teen-agers. The PIL cites the information obtained by Anil Wadpalliwar under RTI Act.
According to Section 4 of Motor Vehicles Act, no person in the 16 to 18 age-bracket can drive a vehicle above 50 cc engine capacity. But most of the scooterettes in the market have engines with over-50 cc capacity, some even have 125-150 cc engines, the PIL says.
Also, the teen-agers who use the two-wheelers to go to tuituion classes in residential areas also create parking and traffic problems, it says. They don't wear helmets, drive rashly, speak on mobile phone while driving, it adds.
Wearing helmet should be made mandatory for all teachers and students and no licence should be issued to teenagers who ride above-50 cc bikes, it says.
