The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday allowed a company to sell speed governors, while putting on hold the government’s notification that had stipulated “extra criteria” for the manufacturers of speed governors to sell the devices in the State. Justice Anand Byraredy passed the order on a petition filed by Autograde International Pvt. Ltd., which had questioned the eligibility criteria, issued by the Transport Department on August 29, for registration of manufacturers for supply and installation of speed governors.
The petitioner-firm has contended that the eligibility criteria was issued without any authority of law by the department as neither does the Central Motor Vehicles Act or Rules mention anything about eligibility criteria for registration to sell speed governors.
The only requirement in law for sale and supply was that the manufacturer should have obtained Type Approval certificates and Conformity of Production that are in compliance with the AIS 018/2001 norms and certified by the four testing agencies, like Automotive Research Association of India as required under Rule 126 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, the petitioner contended.
Contending that the department cannot restrict the manufacturers from selling legally-approved speed governors in the open market by imposing “extraneous conditions”, the petitioner said that eligibility criteria was issued as if the government is inviting tenders for supply of speed governors. It was also alleged in the petition that the “illegal” eligibility criteria were with a view to help two-three large companies, which manufacture speed governors. The petitioner questioned how the department could prevent sale of legally-approved speed governors, manufactured by the petitioners, in the open market in Karnataka when these speed governors were permitted to be sold in other States.
Meanwhile, the court has told the petitioner-firm to keep record of sale of speed governors while insisting that only those devices that were manufactured as per MV Act norms could be sold by it. The petitions, filed by many other manufacturers of speed governors, are likely to come up before the court this week.
