Reconsider rule to fit speed governors in old transport vehicles, Bombay HC tells Centre
The government must reconsider their rule at least for vehicles for which approved speed governors are not available in the market, the bench said.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to reconsider the rule that makes speed governors mandatory in transport vehicles, for which approved speed governors are not available in the market.
The division bench of Justice Shantanu Kemkar and Justice MS Karnik asked advocate RV Govilkar, who represented the central government, to file an affidavit in two weeks clarifying their stand on the issue.
The judges said that the government must reconsider their rule at least for those vehicles which are otherwise road-worthy and are legally allowed to ply, but for which approved speed governors are not available in the market as their manufacturers have expressed inability in fitting the speed-limiting device in such a case.
The court was hearing petitions filed by Mumbai Taximen’s Union and Mumbai Bus Malak Sanghtana, who approached the court complaining of unavailability of speed governors made mandatory by the central government in April 2015.
In April 2015, the Centre amended Rule 118 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, and made fitting of speed governors with a prefixed maximum speed limit of 80 kmph mandatory for all commercial transport vehicles and school buses across the country. GS Hegde, counsel for Mumbai Taximen’s Union, said no speed-limiting devices are available in the market for several makes of vehicles such as Maruti 800, Wagon-R, Maruti Esteem, Asto, Zen-Estilo, Fiat and i10, and that even their manufacturers have expressed inability to modify the engines to fit speed governors.
Hegde said it was a case of doctrine of impossibility. He said though taxi drivers want to comply, there are no speed governors available and nobody is willing to fit the devices on these old models, which are still used in large numbers as taxies in Mumbai and its suburbs.