: Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to verify if all medium and heavy goods passenger vehicles are fitted with Speed Governors or the newly designed version instead of speed Governors and to file a compliance report before June 24.
The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T.S.Sivagnanam, before which a PIL by an advocate Kasinatha Bharathi came up yesterday, posted the matter for compliance by the Transport Department.
The advocate had filed a PIL in connection with an accident involving an omnibus near Kaveripakkam in Vellore district in 2011 in which more than 20 persons died.
He submitted that even after the tragedy,omnibus operators were running sleeper coaches and fixed their own fares. The State government had not taken action against them as they were persons of influence, he contended.
The petitioner sought a direction to the Transport Department to regulate omnibuses, including their fare, speed and permit.
Notifying that no medium, heavy goods or passenger motor vehicle will be registered unless they are fitted with speed governor in compliance with Central Motor Vehicles Rules, he said the notification must state the maximum speed limit.
He further said government should give owners of registered vehicles three months' time to fit speed governors and action should be taken if they fail to do so.
A division bench had in 2011 directed all omnibus operators, either with State or national permit, to fit speed governors by Dec 22 that year. If these were not done within the period, authorities should not issue or renew temporary permits or accept taxes from all India permit holders.
When the above petition came up yesterday, the Transport department filed a counter, stating that almost all vehicles have been fitted with either with Speed Governors or the newly designed version in the place of them.
