Madurai Bench of the Madras HC shows red flag to share autos violating rules

Madurai: The Madurai Bench of the Madras high court on Tuesday directed the regional transport officer and the traffic police to take stringent action on share autos which were found violating the traffic regulations.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Pupsha Sathyanarayana issued this direction on a petition filed by an advocate P. Balamurugan demanding to stop the illegal plying of ‘Ape Auto as share auto’ as if it is a stage carrier against the provision of motor vehicles act 1988 and Tamil Nadu Motor vehicle Rules and the executive orders made under article 162 of the Const-itution of India 1950.

The illegal plying of these autos has resulted in accidents causing partial or permanent disability to lakhs of people in Tamil Nadu, he contended. While it was permitted to carry five passengers excluding the driver, the share auto was found transporting more than 10 commuters, he said. Moreover, when the government had fixed ceiling limit of 50 permits in each district, the transport officials were giving more permits violating the rules, said Balamurugan.

When the case came up for hearing on Tuesday, the public prosecutor told the court that as many as 7900 auto-rickshaws were plying in Madurai district and transport officials have temporarily cancelled the license of 915 auto-rickshaws for violating the rules and collected a fine amount of '1.63 crore up to June 2016.
However, the judges asked the PP what action they had taken against the violator’s post-June 2016.

Directing the authorities to take action against the violators, the court also asked the transport officials to submit an action taken report against the violators up to June 2017. The court posted the next hearing after two weeks.