MADURAI
The Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday restrained the Transport Department from invoking the powers conferred on it under Section 83 of the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988 and thereby allowing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) autorickshaw permit holders to utilise the same permits for purchasing and operating diesel autorickshaws.
A Division Bench of Justices K.K. Sasidharan and G.R. Swaminathan passed the interim order after suo motu including the Transport Secretary as one of the respondents to a public interest litigation petition, alleging large-scale misuse of LPG autorickshaw permits, and directed the official to file a counter affidavit by August 21.
The judges pointed out that Section 83 of the MV Act stated that the holder of a permit could, with the permission of the authority by whom the permit was granted, replace any vehicle covered by the permit with any other vehicle of the same nature. Stressing the words ‘same nature,’ they wondered how could LPG vehicles be considered equivalent to diesel ones.
Since diesel vehicles were more harmful to the environment compared to those run on LPG, the judges said the authorities could not be permitted to authorise use of LPG vehicle permits to operate diesel autorickshaws without convincing the court as to how both kinds of vehicles could be considered to be of the same nature.
During the course of arguments, Mr. Justice Sasidharan doubted whether such an exercise was being carried out at Regional Transport Offices to help those who could not obtain diesel autorickshaw permits ever since the State Government decided to stop issuing petrol, diesel and LPG autorickshaw permits in toto since August 24, 2015.
“We can understand if a diesel autorickshaw permit is used to operate an LPG autorickshaw, but it cannot happen in the reverse,” Mr. Justice Swaminathan told a Special Government Pleader.
